A Conversation for The Trick that Fooled Einstein

Loose change then and now

Post 1

Vestboy

I really like maths tricks and like this article.

In those days the largest coin in general circulation was probably the half crown. Very few people would have carried crowns, I think. Half a crown was 2/6 (two shillings and sixpence or 30 old pence (12.5p). Nowadays the £2 coin is common. That would be the equivalent of 40 shillings or 480 old pence, so now you'd need to carry a lot more change in your pocket to ensure you had more than the subject. I often have £15 - £20 in change with only 10 - 20 coins if I have had a spate of using notes. What sort of techniques would have been used on me to get this to work if the magician had say £12.57 in his pocket and I had £18.50.
I wonder what the average man carries in his pocket in modern times?


Loose change then and now

Post 2

Icy North

Thanks Vestie smiley - smiley

There's probably a lot of psychology that goes on before they choose a helper from the audience, and in this case, they'd want someone without pockets full of change. Now, I tend to carry a lot of it at times - especially if I think I need to park the car. Otherwise, I'll generally have up to £5.

We're using contactless payment more and more these days. It will be interesting to see how this changes the premise of this trick in future.


Oh, and when turning out an old relative's house, we found a bag full of sixpences. I hadn't seen one for years - they looked really exotic, and it felt good to have a complete handful of these silver coins. They were certainly precious and valuable when I was a kid, but nowadays, they're worth 2.5p

I'd probably get even more excited if they were threepenny bits (1.25p) or farthings (0.10417p)


Loose change then and now

Post 3

Bald Bloke

I wasn't looking at my change the other day, I think it must have been the newsagent who passed me a sixpence instead of a 5p.
Doubt he noticed either as it was dark o'clock at the time.


Loose change then and now

Post 4

Icy North

At some stage, these old coins will exceed their value in terms of scrap.


Loose change then and now

Post 5

Bald Bloke

That's what I was thinking, So I just stuck it aside.
Anyone know what a 6d is currently worth (apart from 2 1/2 P smiley - smiley )


Loose change then and now

Post 6

FWR

I looked in the darkest recess of every drawer for some proper money to illustrate the trick that fooled Einstein, not this Mickey Mouse metric stuff, sadly I only found a dollar bill and three very old watches, not a single old penny! Lol smiley - cheers


Loose change then and now

Post 7

Vestboy

I remember when decimalisation was coming in in 1971 and we were busy converting between old and new money to work out whether the prices were a rip off or not when the shops converted. One rule of thumb was to double the new coin amount and put a / between the digits to get a rough idea of what it would be in old money.

So 18p was 36 then put a / between the digits to give 3/6 (three shillings and 6 pence). An accurate conversion for 3/6 was 17 and a half new pence, but it was accurate enough.

Would it be asking too much for a half 1/2 smiley?smiley - winkeye


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