Penny For Your Thoughts... (Patreon)

"Okay, so it's 8 bits to the tithe, and three tithes to the groat."

"Right."

"But there are also ten disme to the groat, so one disme is worth 2.4 bits, or 2/3 a tithe."

"Correct."

"So, to make change, a moon is a tithe with a hole punched out, treated as 1/3 of a tithe, but that's unofficial."

"Yes."

"Meanwhile, some old bits were tiny and made of gold, rather than the modern copper tithe, and they are now called suns, and treated as being worth 1.2 bits, also unofficially."

"Spot on."

"Then it's three groats to the testoon, or five groats to the florin."

"Absolutely."

"And there's a double florin, which is worth 12 groats, rather than the 10 groats you might expect since a normal florin is worth five groats."

"Yes."

"And, why is that?"

"The Third Royal Numismatics Act, which was designed to encourage use of groats over testoons."

"... ah."

"And then the Unite, which is worth 60 groats. And that is because... ?"

"So you can evenly divide a Unite into double florins, florins, groats, or testoons."

"Which is why Imperial taxes are all calculated in fractions of a Unite?"

"Right! See, perfectly logical."