Pardon Me, But Do You Have Change for One Pence?

If You Have Any Cents, You Will Read This:

Have a handful of strange looking change and completely lost as to how to actually buy something? By now you should know that I won't leave you hanging.

Here is a little crash course on British money. Once you learn it, it will be engrained in your brain forever like the last time you walked in on your teacher kissing your dad.

Pence: No, this isn't just an outdated made up word used in old movies stereotyping our dear friends the Brits. It is actually a real word for money. The closest thing to it would be the US or Canadian penny. Pence is often abbreviated as "p" both in writing as well as speech, as in "You can buy that apple but it will cost you 50p." You will probably also hear someone abbreviate the price by skipping the word pence (as in "What a bargain! That chair only costs five pounds twenty." This is another way of saying that the item costs 5 pounds and 20 pence.).Unlike in the US, there are coins for 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, and 50p.

It has just come to my attention (today, in fact) that there has just been a redesign of all coins including the 1 pound coin (which we will cover next) and excluding the 2 pound coin.

Pounds: You could liken a pound (GBP) to a dollar, although the pound is worth about twice what a dollar is these days. You may hear someone refer to pounds as "quid," which is just a slang term meaning the same thing. Pounds appear in the form of either a one pound coin, a two pound coin, or in notes.

Notes: This is a fancy way of saying paper money. Notes come as £1,£2,£5,£10,£20,£50, and (in Scotland and Northern Ireland) £100. £1,000,000 and £100,000,000 exist but are only used internally in the banks; they are not actually circulated to the public. Notes are very colorful and perhaps smaller than you might be used to seeing.

Wikipedia does a great job at explaining the various shapes, sizes, and looks of the UK currency. You can search for pound sterling, coins of the pound sterling or Bank of England note issues and you will see pictures and explanations for each. You can even search "quid" and find out the history behind the slang.

If you need to convert from your native currency to GBP (Great Britain pounds), here is the currency converter I use:http://www.xe.com/ucc/. It is very straightforward and you can also covert to or from other currencies. I would strongly recommend that you check the exchange rate before you leave and during your trip if you are concerned about how much your money from home will get you, since the exchange rate is ever-changing.

If you decide to wait until you get to England to exchange your money, I suggest not getting it at the airport since you will pay a higher fee. The British department store Marks & Spencer does it for free and you are sure to find one on High Street in whatever city you are in (this is the local equivalent of a "Main Street.") If not you can visit the bank but this tends to mean longer queues (lines) and more hassle. When you are leaving the area you can change your money back if you have some left over.