We love our money

Have you noticed that there are many different patterns and pictures on the back (the ‘tails’ side) of British 50 pence coins? I didn’t really care about this until 2008 when there was a big competition to re-design most of the UK coins. If you look in your wallet or purse now, you will probably find some of these wonderfully clever concept coins. If you have one of each kind of coin from 1p to £1, you can make the Royal Shield. It’s like a jigsaw . Here is the result:

It’s a great idea, isn’t it? These are now the standard designs for the UK coins, but if you check the 50p coins you have, you might find some other interesting ones because there are many designs which celebrate different things. So, what other designs have been on the 50p? The picture below shows many of them. Why not try to collect them all? They could be an interesting present for your family.

Of this collection of 50p coins, these are my favourite:

• In 1954 Roger Bannister was the first man to run 1 mile (1.6km) in under 4 minutes. This 2004 coin celebrates his achievement.
• In 2011 the World Wildlife Fund was 50 years old, and this coin was designed in celebration.
• I’ve never actually seen this coin, but it celebrates 150 years since the first free publilc libraries in the UK.

However, my absolute favourite 50p designs are the ones that were released in 2011 to celebrate the London Olympics. There are 29 sports in the Olympics, which means there are 29 different 50p pictures. There was a competition to choose the pictures, so each one was designed by a different competition winner. I have been collecting them for a few years now, but I still only have 20! Lots of other people are collecting them too, so now it’s difficult to find them. In fact, it is estimated that more than 70% of these special coins have disappeared, which equals more than 10 million pounds!
If you see one, you are lucky!
If you see one, please give it to me!!!

Talking about British money

1 pence is the value, while a penny is a 1 pence coin. Therefore, if we say “20 pence”, we could mean one 20p coin, two 10p coins, four 5p coins, etc, but if we say “20 pennies”, we always mean twenty 1p coins.
We usually just say “p” instead of “pence”, but be careful because “ pee ” is also something we do in the toilet! If we say “I need 1p”, it means one pence, but if we say “I need a pee”, it means that it’s time to run to the bathroom!
Another word for “pound” is “quid”. We only use it with friends because it is not formal. The plural is the same as the singular: 1 quid, 2 quid, 3 quid...
We call the brown money (1p and 2p coins) “coppers”, but they don’t contain much copper any more. We also call police people “coppers”, or “cops”.

Which ones do we say?

1. two pounds and fifty
   answer
2. two pounds and fifty p
   answer
3. two and fifty p
   answer
4. two and fifty
   answer
5. two fifty
   answer
6. two pounds fifty
   answer
7. two
   answer
8. two pounds
   answer
9. a fiver (for a £5 note)
   answer
10. a tenner
    answer
    1. a twentier
       answer

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