The abbreviation £sd (often written L.s.d.) refers to the traditional system of British currency that combined pounds, shillings and pence. It described the pre-decimal unit of pre-decimal currencies used for centuries as the standard of sterling. The system was used throughout the United Kingdom and in many territories of the British Empire, and features frequently in historical accounts, price lists and legal records from those eras.

Structure, symbols and origin

£sd stands for pounds (symbol £), shillings (s, from Latin solidus) and pence (d, from Latin denarius). The basic relationships were 12 pence = 1 shilling and 20 shillings = 1 pound, so 240 pence equaled one pound. The long-standing Latin abbreviations reflect the system's roots in Roman coin names and medieval accounting.

Notation, examples and practical effects

Amounts were written in various ways: for example, two pounds, ten shillings and six pence could appear as "£2 10s 6d", "2/10/6" or spelled out. Ancillary units such as the guinea (21 shillings) were used in specific markets like auctions or professional fees. The absence of a base-10 structure made arithmetic more complex for everyday transactions, requiring conversion between 12 and 20 bases rather than simple decimal fractions.

Coins and denominations

  • Farthing (1/4d) and halfpenny (1/2d) — very small values
  • Penny (1d) and threepence (3d)
  • Sixpence (6d), shilling (1s = 12d)
  • Florin (2s), half crown (2s 6d), crown (5s)
  • Guinea (21s) — used as a pricing convention

Everyday speech and accounting developed shortcuts and mental methods to handle these conversions; for many people the system was second nature but could be awkward for trade with decimal-based economies, such as the United States.

History, transition and legacy

The £sd system evolved over centuries from medieval money-of-account practices and earlier Roman names. It was formalized into coinage conventions and widespread use across empire economies. In the 20th century the United Kingdom moved to a decimal currency (the modern pound divided into 100 new pence), a change often called decimalisation. Historical prices, wages and monetary records using shillings and pence remain important sources for historians and collectors, and the system persists in literature, period drama and numismatic study.

For further background see general references on monetary history and numismatics; the topic is treated in depth by histories of sterling and studies of currency systems used in the British Empire and the United Kingdom.