h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've always been on Guy Fawkes side

I remember hearing once that the way of keeping track of tax bills in Guy Fawkes day was to put notches in a piece of wood. The wood was then roughly split down the middle and the tax payer was given one half while the tax collector had the other. When they person came to pay the taxes the two halves were joined to see that the tax people had put not extra notches in and the tax payer hadn't sawn a bit off the end. Story has it that all of these wooden tallies were then stored in the cellars of the House of Commons and that these would have multiplied the effect of the gunpowder that Guy Fawkes and mates had positioned down there.

Vestboy
Close but no Cigar

The tally sticks were the cause of the fire which destroyed the old palace of Westminster in 1834.
Don't think they would have made a lot of difference if Gudio had managed to set off the bang, except maybe as flying splinters.

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/WORKS-OF-ART/The-fire-of-1834-booklet.pdf

cool and mi5 in tri-corner hats eh

Thanks Bald Bloke. I'm glad you've set this straight.

I've worked with a number of groups on setting up alternative currencies. Getting people to think about what money is can be great fun. For instance having receipts for your produce from the store house means that you can trade your produce using the receipts rather than the grain/apples/wolverines or whatever you have left there. This is quickly understood by most people. When you look at a £5 note and see that it has a promise on it and then ask what you get in return the answer is much more tricky. Gold? Nope, not any more.

Wooden tallies from a store house used as currency are much more transparent. But you can't see through the wood... for the trees.

You can't even get 5 lbs of sterling silver any more for a bluey.

BTW, there never was a Canadian two penny piece.
It was this fact which attracted me to the subject line.

It is an oddity and one which I suspected the author
of the thread might have been aware because it seems
tuppence was an otherwise world-wide notion. Yes even
the US had two-penny pieces but never Canada did.

The US still has a one cent piece (penny) but Canada
has given up on the one percent entirely. Five cents is
the smallest denomination coin we have now. Originally
made of nickel it evolved to less costly metal alloys.

The US didn't like two dollar bills much but we always
had them - now with inflation we do have a 2 dollar coin
called a 'twoonie'; and the smallest paper notes we have
- plastic now actually - are fivers.

Xmas greetings all round!

~jwf~

It's similar in Australia, no coppers, lowest note $5, made of plastic and with a see through bit to put off forgers. Their money certainly is more transparent.