Foreign Service Stamp?

Look for my posts in the US Back of Book Forum

Wasn't the catalog a light blue color that year? I think I still have a couple of hardcover editions in my storage!

Yes about the vintage of my wine
1989 is too far back for us old fossils,
I'm chuffed if I can remember what I had for breakfast.

Light Blue & Small size to save on paper. Now I just Buy the Specialized and Whatever Vol. has Germany in it. I let the Library down the block buy the rest with my ridiculous tax dollars.

I often say: "Of all the things I've lost in my life I miss my mind the most."

According to Monsters Inc., it turns out you don't need a brain!

They should talk to the Scarecrow about that

Kirks, here's today's history lesson.

The abbreviations for Pounds, Shillings and Pence (L, s, d, funnily enough!) come from the Roman words Libra (a Roman unit of weight), solidus and denarius (which were Roman coins}

There were 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. 240 pennies (12 x 20) weighed one pound.

Despite what the editors of Scott say, in pre-decimal times (to 1970), the abbreviation "p" was not used for pence, the correct abbreviation being "d". To anyone from the UK, 1p can only mean post-1970 currency.

Accordingly, one pound, seven shillings and sixpence halfpenny would be written thus £1/7/6½d

One of our maths tests at primary school was to add up lists of amounts manually. Now THAT was a challenge!

Excellent point! Which, as you noted, Scott ignores and uses the same "p" notation. Scott is simply choosing an abbreviation for the word "pence", rather than differentiating between the 2 monetary structures (pre-decimal, decimal).

Being on the other side of the pond, I didn't realize what Scott had done until I started my Guernsey collection. The first Baliwick issue of 1969-1970 were in "d", and were reissued 1 year later with the same designs except using "p" because of the switch to decimal currency.

Good post, I enjoyed that, and shall archive it.
The Early Irish had a "p" but cannot recall immediately, the meaning.

I think Quanah recently posted a currency value as "Thaler",
the word "dollar" derived from that.

Are you referring to "pingin" (penny). Not sure if I got that right. I just know what I see on the early Irish stamps that I have. Doesn't mean I understand it!

k

Bullseye! khj. That's it "pingin" :)
I am going to assume it was "penny" or worth a penny.
Cheers

The early Irish "p" Was this not "Punt" ?

Quiz
Does anyone know what a tanner is in GB Currency.
It is also my fathers nickname.
David (DJD)

Punt would be Irish for "pound". The 1 punt/pound postage stamps did not come until much later (1970s?). So the "p" on the early stamps should be for pingin (pence). I am speaking strictly postage stamps. I do not know the convention for currency or other things.