It was introduced in order to reduce the weight of coinage in the system.

On that basis I've always assumed that it's due to a vast majority of things costing 20p-40p in the UK at that time

We have 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, £1, £2 and £5 coins. It makes no more or no less sense to have 1/4 as 1/5, except that with 1/5 (plus the other coins) you can get more values with fewer coins, meaning lighter pockets.

its similar with euro...
there are 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, 1€, 2€.
dunno why, but its not that wierd imo ^^

Looking at pictures of your coins (wow i am bored), i noticed you have pretty flashy coins.

In australia, we have 5cents, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1, $2



Our notes are $5, 10, 20, 50, 100.. they are pretty colourful.

Wow...rainbow coloured money. :uglyhamme

I think i might whack this 20p on eBay. Theres a couple at over £50 with a few hours to go, but they all got Video proof, so i guess i'll have to record a quick video clip and then post it up.

OMG. I thought S14 was back when I saw this thread under "New Posts".

Ozzie money is awesome, its waterproof plastic No more soggy £5 notes if we did it!

Quote from lukelfs :

Well One went for £7,000 ages ago, But Wasnt there that give them to who ever and get £50 for it ? cant remeber

The company who buys it from you for £50 (The London Mint iirc) are someone i'd avoid - they are playing off the name off the royal mint (and no they aren't the same company) and have bought up a lot of the coins. If they own the majority of the coins then they control the supply - in which case they can then pretty much name their price.

If I had one i'd hold on to it and play "The London Mint" at their own game and cash in...

Quote from aoun :

Our notes are $5, 10, 20, 50, 100.. they are pretty colourful.

http://www.istockphoto.com/fil ... lipping-path-included.jpg

Put the money back in the Monopoly box.

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

I think i might whack this 20p on eBay. Theres a couple at over £50 with a few hours to go

yeah go for it. I was watching the auctions for someone else who has one a few days ago, and one went for £90.

They don't seem to be going for as much any more. It was probably just the intial "ZOMG MUST HAVE" that allowed the 20p posted in the OP to make what it did . Although still worth putting it on to get £50 or so.

There are some on a Buy It Now at £1,000,000... Dunno what kind of insane moron put that on. Obviously have money to throw away in the form of listing fees :rolleyes:

I`m thinking the one on ebay that went for £5000 was a publicity stunt from ebay, FREE ADVERTISING springs to mind