That will be 25 guineas

I am thinking of invoicing in Guineas. Why? To confer upon the commercial practice of copywriting some professional mystique and lustre which it doesn't deserve.

What's a Guinea?

Well..OK. Maybe you're under about 40, or maybe you've never lived in the UK, or moved here after 1971.

Before the UK decimalised its currency in 1971, we had a wonderful if bizarre Pound, divided into 20 shillings, each of which then divided into 12 pence.

So pounds and shillings were the mainstay of the currency.

Guineas though, lived alongside them. There had not been a Guinea coin or note of any description since 1816, but the Guinea was still a significant part of our economy and, more interestingly, our society, until its demise in 1971.

The Guinea was a name for the sum of money One Pound and One Shilling (£1/1/-). It's modern day equivalent is thus £1.05.

What the Guinea denoted however was something remarkable for social rather than economic reasons. It denoted a more civilised way of doing business. Working men toiled for pounds and shillings, but Gentlemen bought and sold land or livestock in Guineas. (Indeed livestock auctions are one of the few places where the Guinea term still remains in parlance.)

Professional men such as Physicians or Lawyers always presented their accounts in Guineas and, I've just read, a Barrister billing 100 Guineas would traditionally retain 100 pounds, but pass the 100 shillings (£5) to his clerk.

It's a fantastic example of how branding can add value. With it's aura of aristocratic dealings, the Guinea connoted breeding and status on those who dealt in it in a way that the same sum expressed in pounds and shillings simply never could.

Comments

[Russell Cavanagh]

As a working class child in the late '60s, I knew my parents had "arrived" financially when I received a 10 Bob note for my birthday. Before that, we were so poor that whenever my mother saw a £20 note she thought it was a cheque ...