do not use sterling as their official currency. Pre-decimal coinage System Before decimalisation in 1971, the pound was divided into 240 pence rather than 100, though it was rarely expressed in this way. Rather it was expressed in terms of pounds, shillings and pence, where: £1 = 20 shillings (20s). 1 shilling = 12 pence (12d). Thus: £1 = 240d. The penny was further subdivided at various times, though these divisions vanished as inflation made them irrelevant: 1 penny = 2 halfpennies and (earlier) 4 farthings (half farthing, a third of a farthing, and quarter farthing coins were minted in the late 19th century, and into the early 20th century in the case of the third farthing, but circulated only in certain British colonies and not in the UK). Using the example of five shillings and sixpence, the standard ways of writing shillings and pence were: 5s 6d 5/6 5/- for 5 shillings only, with the dash to stand for zero pennies. The sum of 5/6 would be spoken as "five shillings and sixpence" or "five and six". The abbreviation for the old penny, d, was derived from the Roman denarius, and the abbreviation for the shilling, s, from the Roman solidus. The shilling was also denoted by the slash symbol, also called a solidus for this reason, which was originally an adaptation of the long s. The symbol "£", for the pound, is derived from the first letter of the Latin word for pound, libra. A similar pre-decimal system operated in France, also based on the Roman currency, consisting of the livre (L), sol or sou (s) and denier (d). Until 1816 another similar system was used in the Netherlands, consisting of the gulden (G), stuiver (s; G) and duit, (d; s or G). Denominations In the years just prior to decimalisation, the circulating British coins were: The farthing (d) had been demonetised on 1 January 1961, whilst the crown (5/-) was issued periodically as a commemorative coin but rarely found in circulation. The crown, half crown, florin, shilling, and sixpence were cupronickel coins (in historical times silver or silver alloy); the penny, halfpenny, and farthing were bronze; and the threepence was a twelve-sided nickel-brass coin (historically it was a small silver coin). Some of the pre-decimalisation coins with exact decimal equivalent values continued in use after 1971 alongside the new coins, albeit with new names (the shilling became