For fic set in current Britain, this shouldn’t be much of a problem (but please remember that the Brits still use the pound sterling rather than the euro), but if you’re writing anything set before 1971, it can get … complicated.
Which is not that surprising, considering that British coinage goes back to around the seventh century, when (according to the Royal Mint Museum) the first English pennies were struck.
You had your farthings, your tuppence, your sixpence, your shillings, your sovereigns, your half-crowns … and much more. And because the whole thing was based on the value of the pound sterling, which was worth … wait for it … 240 pence (pennies), or 20 shillings (which were worth 12 pence), calculations could be tough for those of us who are mathematically challenged. (In my Epithalamium Series headcanon, Albus generally lets Minerva handle the Muggle money, since she’s quicker at doing sums in her head than he is.)
Fortunately, on February 15, 1971, known as Decimal Day, the UK changed over to a decimal-based monetary system, making things demonstrably easier (but arguably less interesting) for all of us.
My purpose here is to give you the basics of British money, both pre- and post-decimalization, so you can write with at least a bit of verisimilitude, whether you have little Severus trying to get a box of Malteasers at the corner shop in 1968 Cokeworth, or Scorpius and Albus Severus going on a date to the cinema to see the live-action How to Train Your Dragon in Muggle London in 2025.
I am no expert: I’ve never lived in the UK, and I’ve only visited the sceptred isle once and for a short time. I am certainly not going to try to tell you what is “British” and “not British.”
What I am attempting to do is alert you to things you might want to think about when you, a distinctly non-British person, are writing Harry Potter (or other Britain-based) fic.
These are things that have tripped me up as an American attempting to impersonate a Brit when I write. (And please take everything here with a large grain of salt—again, I am emphatically not an expert. If you are, and you think I’ve made an error, please give me a shout.)
The currency system prior to decimalization was quaintly known as the £sd system, from the abbreviations for pound, shilling, and penny (more on this below), and not from any hallucinogenics the creators of the system might have been enjoying, in case you were wondering.
1 pound = 20 shillings or 240 pence*
1 shilling = 12 pence
1 penny = 1/240 pound
*plural of penny
The abbreviations and valuations of pre-decimalization currency came from the Latin currency denominations librae, solidi, and denari.
The abbreviations were:
pound: £
example: £3
shilling: s or / (see below)
example: 6s or 6/—
penny/pence: d
example: 4d
In case it isn’t confusing enough, you’ll find currency amounts for pre-decimalization money written in several different ways. For example, the amount three pounds, two shillings, and four pence could be written as:
£3 2s. 4d. or £3 2/4 or £3.2.4.
In addition, you may also see a “long s” (which looks like a forward slash) to abbreviate shillings, as in 2/3, meaning two shillings, three pence; or 2/–, meaning two shillings, zero pence.
(See “Understanding Currency” from More Than a List of Crew and Wikipedia’s “£sd” for a more detailed explanation.)
Most of these were eventually demonetized (meaning they stopped being considered legal tender) shortly after decimalization, or their values changed.
Farthing — ¼ penny; demonetized January 1961.
Halfpenny (ha’penny) — ½ penny; demonetized July 1969.
One penny (“copper”, “pence”) — 1/240 pound until 1971; then 1/100 pound.
Twopence (“tuppence”) — 2 pence or 1/120 pound until 1971; after 1971 worth 2/100 pound. Still in use.
Threepence (“thipp’nce”, “thripp’ny bit”, “thrupp’ny bit”) — 3 pence; minted until 1970, demonetized August 1971.
Sixpence (“tanner”) — 6 pence or 1/80 pound; demonetized June 1980.
Shilling (“bob”) — 12 pence until 1971, then 5 (decimal) pence until 1990; demonetized in 1990.
Florin/two shillings — 24 pence or 1/10 pound until 1971; 10 pence to 1993; demonetized in 1993.
Half crown (“half a dollar”) — 2 shillings and 6 pence, or 1/8 pound; demonetized in January 1970.
Crown (“dollar”) — 5 shillings or ¼ pound; demonetized and replaced by 25-pence commemorative coin in 1971. The value of the new crown coin was raised to 5 pounds in 1990.
Starting in 1914, the Bank of England began to issue 10-shilling and 1-pound banknotes to replace gold coins (the sovereign and half-sovereign).
As in the US, the UK has registered nurses, who staff hospitals; nursing associates (nursing assistants), who provide care such as washing and dressing, feeding, or basic assessments such as vital signs, etc.; midwives (nurse-midwives/CNMs), who attend uncomplicated births in hospitals and in homes; specialist/advanced practice nurses (nurse practitioners), who have additional post-graduate nursing training and can run clinics and provide specialist nursing care in the community or in hospitals.
Senior nurses (similar to charge nurses in the US) in hospitals are sometimes called “sisters” or “nursing sisters,” because historically, nursing care was provided by nuns.
In discussing money, some folks might use the following slang phrases, by way of example:
“That Mars bar cost me two bob.”
Translation: That Mars bar cost two shillings, but only before 1990. (After 1990, “two bob” would mean ten pence. Way too cheap for a Mars bar.)
“The Daily Mail ain’t worth a brass farthing.”
Translation: “The Daily Mail is worthless.” A farthing was worth a quarter penny, at least until 1961, when it stopped being legal tender. (The current value of the Daily Mail I leave to the reader’s discretion.)
“You used to be able to get a decent pint for a couple of coppers.”
Translation: “You used to be able to get a decent pint of beer for a few pence.” (In 1960, Google tells me, a pint of beer could be had for around eight pence in the UK.)
“When me dad went down the mines, he got one and six a week.”
Translation: “When my father became a coal miner, he was paid one shilling and sixpence per week.” (A crappy wage, even a long time ago, for difficult, dangerous work.)
1 pound (£) = 100 pence (p)
Shillings were phased out and replaced by pence and the d abbreviation was very sensibly changed to p.
Half penny (“ha’penny” or “half-pee”) — ½ penny; demonetized in 1984.
One penny (“one pee”)
Two pence (“two pee”)
Five pence — replaced the shilling. The size was reduced in 1990.
Ten pence — replaced the Florin. The size was reduced in 1991.
Twenty pence — introduced in 1982.
Fifty pence — introduced 1969 to replace the 10-shilling banknote. Reduced in size 1997.
One pound (“quid”) — replaced the old 1-pound banknote in 1983.
Two pounds — commemorative coin from 1986. Circulation coin from 1998.
One pound (“quid”) – withdrawn in England and Wales in 1988. Still issued in Scotland.
Five pounds (“fiver”)
Ten pounds (“tenner”)
Twenty pounds (“score”)
Fifty pounds (“bullseye”)
100 pounds — since 1945, only issued by Scottish and Northern Irish banks.
Examples:
“I got a small box of Jelly Babies for fifty p.”
Translation: ‘I got a small box of gummy-bear-like candies shaped like babies for fifty pence.’ (Why Brits would want to eat babies is beyond the scope of this post.)
“That Magistrate fined me a hundred quid for pissing on the statue of Maggie T.”
Translation: ‘That lay judge fined me fifty pounds for peeing on the statue of Margaret Thatcher.’ (The purveyors of this blog don’t condone peeing on any statue, even Maggie Thatcher’s.)
Wizarding money seems to be based vaguely on pre-decimalization British coinage.
As far as we know from canon, there are no British wizarding banknotes. There appear only to be three coins in the British wizarding world: the gold galleon, the silver sickle, and the bronze knut.
Given this, we can probably assume British wizarding coins have intrinsic value (rather than fiat value), although one imagines the Ministry works with Gringotts to periodically determine the values of gold, silver, and bronze in the wizarding world rather than relying on the daily trading prices of those commodities in the Muggle market, which would make for an unstable economy.
1 galleon = 17 sickles or 493 knuts
1 sickle = 29 knuts
There are several conversion tools available online. For this one, I have used The Harry Potter Lexicon’s converter, which is supposedly current to the hour. As of this writing (September 12, 2025), the rates are:
1galleon = US$6.78/£5.00
1 sickle = US$0.40/£0.30
1 knut = US$0.02/£0.02
The symbols for sickles and knuts are pictures, which is a serious PITA. LadyAramisGrey, in her very useful and entertaining What’s in a Name: Headcanons and Geekery recommends using the following Unicode symbols, which seems reasonable:
ʛ (U-029B)
ʢ (U-02A2)
⸫ (U-2E2B)
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