When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
“Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away.”
(from Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, 1896)
Congratulations to Phyzicist for being not only the first to find but also the first to solve - as far as we know!
Background
The fifteenth of February in 1971 was “Decimal Day” in the United Kingdom. On that day, the Brits ceased using pounds, shillings and pence (not to mention sundry other monetary units) and moved to a decimal system of pounds and pence - 100 pence to the pound. It was a huge change and took years of planning before implementation.
Just before the change (1968-69), one member of this team was fortunate enough to be able to take a year off work to “see the world” and spent considerable time in England and Scotland. A cousin of ours by marriage - an Australian actually - was working in England at that time for a firm called National Cash Register now, I believe, the NCR Corporation. Some of his responsibilities at that time involved the adaptation of NCR facilities and machines to the imminent arrival of the decimal monetary system and I know it was a daunting project.
Obviously, a necessary part of this cacher’s experience during that year was to learn to use the pound-shilling-pence system (along with almost a dozen other European currency systems of the time) and a challenge it was - part of an unforgettable, once-in-a lifetime experience.
A few days ago, I was delving into a Canadian mathematics text published in 1887 and I was intrigued to see problems based on that out-moded system. So, of course, it occurred to me that a puzzle cache based on the old British monetary system might make an interesting challenge and provide a learning experience for many who never had the chance to work in that system. This is the result of that thought. There is minimal teaching involved here; it is up to you, if you are interested, to do the research and learn enough about that old system to solve the problems and find the true co-ordinates of the cache. And, by the way, the symbols for pounds, shillings and pence (£, s, d) come from Latin because the system evolved that long ago.
But a word about how to present these amounts.
Geocachers would never present co-ordinates in the form N 39º 287' 451" except, perhaps, temporarily in the process of solving a puzzle. They would reduce such numbers as follows.
Since there are 60 seconds in a minute, one would divide 451" by 60 and get 7' with 31" over. So the co-ordinate is now N 39º 294' 31".
Since there are 60 minutes in a degree, one would divide 294' by 60 and get 4º with 54' over. So the co-ordinate is now N 43º 54' 31".
One deals with pounds, shillings and pence - and other denominations like farthings and tanners - in the same way. Of course questions as to the relative values of the coins are up to you to answer!
And now . . . have fun . . . or do something else!
The “Coins”
We will deal with the following coins as the various denominations were inter-related in 1950 with the exception that, by then, there was no “guinea” coin; we will, however, assume that it still existed for the purpose of these questions.
- guinea (no such coin in 1950 . . . but we’ll pretend!)
- sovereign
- crown
- half-crown
- florin
- shilling (“bob”)
- sixpence (“tanner”)
- three-pence (“thruppenny bit” or “thrupence”)
- penny
- half-penny (“ha’penny” pronounced haypenny)
- farthing
The Questions
Question One. During that 1968-69 year referred to above, a “youth hostel” was the abode of choice 95% of the time. Many hostels had a “members’ kitchen” where hostellers could cook breakfast and/or dinner for themselves. It would be rare for a hosteller to buy very much at a time but I’ve got to make you work a little! So, here is a possible shopping list with prices as they were in 1969 in either the hostel shop or in the nearby village (and, as a matter of interest, at that time, £1 sterling was equivalent to about $2.55 Canadian):
2 loaves of bread at 10d 1/8 (meaning 1s, 8d . . . 1 shilling, 8 pence)
6 oranges 1/9
½ lb. of tea 2/9
a jar of honey 2/11
a box of shredded wheat 1/11
½ lb. of butter 1/8
a box of crackers 1/4
1 tin of baked beans 1/4
½ lb. of Stilton cheese 3/3
1 tin of peas -/7 (7 pence)
tinned steak and kidney 3/4
1 tin of peaches 2/4
1 tin of creamed rice -/11
a jar of Branston pickle 1/7
4 tins of Pepsi-Cola @ 10d 3/4
1 bottle of burgundy(!) 12/3
a box of After Eight mints 4/4
Your task is to calculate the total cost of the groceries. (Hints: First, remember what was said about “simplifying” co-ordinates above. Secondly, an answer for the shillings total from above might result in a single digit - say 5; if so, please record B as 0 and C as 5 - i.e. “BC = 05s.” Please follow a similar pattern in the other questions too.
Total Cost: £A, BCs, DEd. A = £ ____, BC = ____s, DE = ____d.
Question 2. During a Friday trek on Dartmoor, north of Two Bridges, Devon, a dented, corroded, tin box was found in a crevice near the base of a remote tor. The box was found to contain the following coins:
15 guineas 37 sovereigns 62 crowns 54 half-crowns
73 florins 87 shillings 28 tanners 19 thruppenny bits
43 pennies 59 ha’pennies 22 farthings
In “pounds, shillings and pence,” what was the total amount of money in the box?
The Amount was: £FG, HJs, KLd. FG = £ ____, HJ = ____s, KL = ____d.
Question 3. An amount of £125, 12s, 6d was invested for one year at a rate of 8% per annum, simple interest. At the end of the year, what was the total value of the investment?
Total Value after a Year: £MNP, QRs, STd. MNP = £_____, QR = ____s, ST = ____d.
Question 4. A collection, amounting to £10, 2s, 6d is made up of florins, half-crowns and crowns. The number of florins is one more than half the number of crowns and the number of half-crowns is two less than the number of florins. Find how many coins there are of each kind. (Hint: algebra works nicely but it’s not the only way.)
Number of Florins, Half-crowns and Crowns Respectively: UV ____, WX____, YZ____.
Co-ordinates of the Cache
Summary of Answers:
A = ___ B = ___ C = ___ D = ___ E = ___
F = ___ G = ___ H = ___ J = ___ K = ___
L = ___ M = ___ N = ___ P = ___ Q = ___
R = ___ S = ___ T = ___ U = ___ V = ___
W ___ X = ___ Y = ___ Z = ___
Calculation of the Co-ordinates:
The cache is situated at N 44º ab.cde’ and W 078º fg.hjk’ where these lower case letters are unrelated to the upper case letters used to represent the answers to the problems except as indicated by the following statements:
(Note: 8A means 8 x A; (H)(F) means H x F.)
a = 8A - 3B - 2C = ___ b = (H)(F) - J + 3D = ___ c = (G)(U) - (L + W) = ___
d = Z(X - N) = ___ e = (Y)(J) - (P)(E) = ___ f = (K)(M) + (Q)(R) = ___
g = (S)(T) + (W)(X) = ___ h = (A)(V) - (H)(Z) = ___ j = (E)(R) - (P)(M) = ___
k = (F - C) + (U - Y) = ___
So the cache can be found at:
N 44º ___ ___ . ___ ___ ___’ and W 078 º ___ ___ . ___ ___ ___’
Notes
➣ Just in case . . . the cache is not at the given co-ordinates;
➣ The co-ordinates were averaged over more than 500 trials;
➣ Please provide your own pen or pencil;
➣ Sorry, there is very little room for swag;
➣ The cache is tethered and should not have to be removed;
➣ Please watch for other people in the area;
➣ Feel free to use the “solution checker” below.