Before 1971, when the British adopted a decimal system, British money was a chaotic jumble of coins. The smallest unit was a quarter farthing, followed by a third farthing, half farthing and finally the farthing. Four farthings made a penny, also known as a pence. Then there are twopences (pronounced tuppences), threepences (pronounced thruppences), groats, sixpences, shillings,  florins, half crowns, double florins, crowns, half guineas, half sovereigns, sovereigns (worth a pound) and guineas.

Victoria became queen when she was just shy of her 18^th birthday. Her predecessors ruled Hanover as well as Britain. However, women were not allowed to inherit titles in Hanover, so Victoria only ruled in Britain, while her uncle ruled Hanover.

Until 2015, Victoria was Britain's longest ruling monarch. That honor now belongs to Elizabeth II.

She was widowed fairly young and never stopped wearing mourning clothes. For the rest of her life, she had her late husband's bed warmed every night and fresh clothes laid out for him every morning.

Since, her reign, every royal girl has had the name Victoria included in their legal name. That practice, ironically, stopped with the girl who eventually became Elizabeth II.

Farthings and coins smaller than farthings were made of bronze. Other coins were made of silver, except for guineas, which were gold.

The value of these coins was chaotic. There were four farthings to a penny, 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound (the value of the sovereign). Groats were 4 pennies. Florins were two shillings. A half crown was two shillings and six pence.

Monetary units were abbreviated “s” and “d”. The “d” represented pence and is derived from the Roman denarius. The denarius was silver, however, and pennies were bronze. The “s” represented shillings, but it actually an abbreviation for solidus, which was the Roman gold coin, even though a shilling was not gold.

There’s a reason they switched to a decimal system in 1971. Today, 100 pence equals a pound.