Seaforth officers' shopping list

[OC Richard]

There were 20 shillings in the pound, and twelve pennies to the shilling, and a price might be shown in shillings only - such as 35/6 instead of £1-15/6, which would be said one pound, fifteen and six. Half-penny and Farthing added to the complexity, along with the Guinea of 21 shillings.

And yet, the British conquered a sizable portion of the world.

[Troglodyte]

And yet, the British conquered a sizable portion of the world.

Oh, yes... So we did.

But that was an accident, and we thought nobody would notice. So don't tell anyone.

The mistake, I feel, was to paint red all our bits on maps of the world - makes it stand out too much. And ruling a quarter of the world from a little office (opening hours 10am-4pm) in a London side-street was a bit unseemly.

Its mostly all been given back now, so that we can tackle the more tricky task of sorting out our currency..!

[OC Richard]

Its mostly all been given back now, so that we can tackle the more tricky task of sorting out our currency..!

You did do, back in the 1970s, and thank you for that.

We here in the USA used decimalised currency from the get-go, however we still have a long way to go, to attain a fully logical system.

For example our coins go 1, 5, 10, 25 while our notes go 1, 5, 10, 20.

Not only that, but our 5 cent coin is bigger than our 10 cent coin, and all our notes are the same size and colour, for the convenience of visiting tourists, and blind people.

[OC Richard]

Back to point, here's a wonderful photo of Officers of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders showing five orders of dress that Officers might appear in prior to the withdrawal of Full Dress in 1914

L-R
Shell Jacket with riding breeches and boots
Full Dress
Blue Patrols
Levee Dress
Shell Jacket with kilt

(Note the ornate gold brocade dirk belt worn in Full Dress and Levee Dress)
(Note the quite different tashe-shape on the two doublets indicating different tailors)
(Note that the only items that all orders of dress have in common are the basket hilted sword, suspended by hidden means in Blue Patrols, and the moustache)

[stickman]

Just read through this article, and could not believe the prices. When I started my apprenticeship on January 4th 1954, we worked 48 hrs a week. I earned 1 pound, 17 shillings, 6 pence. Out of which I had to pay 30 shillings room and board. With the remaining 7/6 I bought a box of shotgun shells. I made more money with that box of shells than I did working all week. At that time I could sell anything I shot to the local butcher. I got to be a very good shot, couldn't afford to miss.