An ancient legacy

Q: Why was one pound ever divided into an awkward number like 240 pennies? Why is a sign similar to an ‘L’ used to signify a pound, and what’s the reason for old pennies to be labelled as ‘1d’ instead of 1p? A: The answer lies in Roman times. ‘Libra’ was the Latin name for a pound. So our pound sign is really an elaborate version of the letter L. The ‘s’ in shillings stands for ‘solidus’. ‘Denarius’ was the name for a penny, hence the abbreviation ‘d’ that was used. But it wasn’t until the mid-8...