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A non-decimal currency is a currency that has sub-units that are a non-decimal fraction of the main unit, i.e. the number of sub-units in a main unit is not a power of 10. Historically, most currencies were non-decimal, though today virtually all are now decimal.
Today, only two countries have non-decimal currencies: Mauritania, where 1 ouguiya = 5 khoums, and Madagascar, where 1 ariary = 5 iraimbilanja. [1] However, these are only theoretically non-decimal, as in both cases the value of each sub-unit is too small to be of any practical use and coins of sub-unit denominations are no longer used.
The official currency of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which retains its claims of sovereignty under international law and has been granted permanent observer status at the United Nations, is the Maltese scudo, which is subdivided into 12 tarì, each of 20 grani with 6 piccoli to the grano.
All other contemporary currencies are either decimal or have no sub-units at all, either because they have been abolished or because they have lost all practical value and are no longer used.
Historically, a variety of non-decimal systems have been used. For example, A vigesimal system (base 20) was in use within ancient Mesoamerica. A sexagesimal system (base 60) was in wide use in ancient Mesopotamia, as this system was used in measurements of time, geometry, currency, and other fields.
Decimal currencies also have disadvantages. The principal advantage of most non-decimal currencies is that they are more easily divided, particularly by numbers such as 3 and 8, than decimal currencies, due to being based upon conversion values that have a large number of factors. A currency with a 100:1 ratio is divisible neither into 3 nor into 8. For example, one-third of an Austrian Gulden (of 60 Kreuzer) was 20 Kreuzer while a third of a dollar is 33.3 cents. This divisibility is useful when trading and when sharing out sums of money. For these reasons, many states chose in the past to adopt non-decimal currencies based on divisions into sub-units such as 12 or 20, sometimes with more than one tier of sub-units.
There is a second, more fortuitous, way in which non-decimal currencies emerged. Often multiple currencies would circulate concurrently in an economy, with non-decimal exchange rates between them. For example, a group related currencies called Reichsthaler, rixdollar, riksdaler, rijksdaalder, and rigsdaler were widely accepted as a common accounting unit which represented a variety of local coins in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Antwerp, and Cologne. Inflation developed locally, with changing subdivisions. For instance the Riksdaler was equivalent to 2 silver dalers in Sweden in 1700, but after the 1715-19 devaluation of the silver daler coin until 1776 one Riksdaler equated to 3 daler silvermint. Most currencies made no distinction between units of accounting and units represented by coins and thus created such shifts. (A similar example in the UK was the guinea, which was worth slightly more than one pound sterling.)
In general, when the major unit was, say, a gold coin and the minor units were silver or copper coins, then when the relative values of the metals changed, perhaps because of an increase or decrease in the supply of one of the metals, then the number of minor units equivalent to one major unit would also change.
Thus the following list does not give a complete picture: it is a list of examples picked from different periods. Many of the subdivisions given below underwent historical changes.
The Russian ruble is often said to have become the first decimalized currency when Peter the Great established the ratio 1 ruble = 100 kopecks in 1701. The Japanese were in some sense earlier calculating with the silver momme and its decimal subunits - but then the momme was not a coin but a unit of weight equivalent to 3.75 g: accounting was by weight of silver. The British pound sterling was the last major currency to be decimalized, on 15 February 1971. The Maltese waited just one year (1972) before following suit and Nigeria followed in 1973. An early proposal for decimalizing the pound in the 19th century envisaged a system of 1 Pound = 10 florins = 100 dimes = 1000 cents. However the only step taken at that time was the introduction in 1849 of a florin (two shillings) coin (the earliest examples bore the inscription "One Tenth of a Pound").
A partial listing of former non-decimal currencies (giving only units of account):
In the Eurozone, in the interval between fixing the conversion factors between national currencies and the euro and the introduction of euro coins, the national currencies were non-decimal subdivisions of the euro.
A thaler or taler is one of the large silver coins minted in the states and territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy during the Early Modern period. A thaler size silver coin has a diameter of about 40 mm and a weight of about 25 to 30 grams. The word is shortened from Joachimsthaler, the original thaler coin minted in Joachimsthal, Bohemia, from 1520.
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or one-twentieth of a pound before being phased out during the 1960s and 1970s.
Decimalisation or decimalization is the conversion of a system of currency or of weights and measures to units related by powers of 10.
£sd, is the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies once common throughout Europe. The abbreviation originates from the Latin currency denominations librae, solidi, and denarii. In the United Kingdom, these were referred to as pounds, shillings, and pence.
The batzen is a historical Swiss, south German and Austrian coin. It was first produced in Bern, Switzerland, from 1492 and continued in use there until the mid-19th century.
The German mark was the currency of the German Empire, which spanned from 1871 to 1918. The mark was paired with the minor unit of the pfennig (₰); 100 pfennigs were equivalent to 1 mark. The mark was on the gold standard from 1871 to 1914, but like most nations during World War I, the German Empire removed the gold backing in August 1914, and gold coins ceased to circulate.
The Kreuzer, in English also spelled kreutzer, was a coin and unit of currency in the southern German states prior to the introduction of the German gold mark in 1871–1873, and in Austria and Switzerland. After 1760 it was made of copper. In south Germany the kreuzer was typically worth 4 Pfennige and there were 60 Kreuzer to a gulden. Kreuzer was abbreviated as Kr, kr, K or Xr.
The Guyanese dollar has been the unit of account in Guyana since 29 January 1839. Originally it was intended as a transitional unit to facilitate the changeover from the Dutch guilder system of currency to the British pound sterling system. The Spanish dollar was already prevalent throughout the West Indies in general, and from 1839, the Spanish dollar unit operated in British Guiana in conjunction with British sterling coins at a standard conversion rate of one dollar for every four shillings and twopence. In 1951 the British sterling coinage was replaced with a new decimal coinage which was simultaneously introduced through all the British territories in the Eastern Caribbean. When sterling began to depreciate in the early 1970s, a switch to a US dollar peg became increasingly attractive as an anti-inflationary measure and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Authority made the switch in October 1975. The Guyanese dollar is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively G$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies.
Each "article" in this category is a collection of entries about several stamp issuers, presented in alphabetical order. The entries are formulated on the micro model and so provide summary information about all known issuers.
The Conventionstaler or Konventionstaler, was a standard silver coin in the Austrian Empire and the southern German states of the Holy Roman Empire from the mid-18th to early 19th-centuries. Its most famous example is the Maria Theresa thaler which is still minted today. The Conventionsgulden was equivalent to a 1⁄2Conventionsthaler.
The Reichsthaler, or more specifically the Reichsthaler specie, was a standard thaler silver coin introduced by the Holy Roman Empire in 1566 for use in all German states, minted in various versions for the next 300 years, and containing 25–26 grams fine silver.
The guilder or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from 1434 until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro.
The Austro-Hungarian gulden (German), also known as the florin, forint, or zloty, was the currency of the lands of the House of Habsburg between 1754 and 1892, when it was replaced by the Austro-Hungarian krone as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the gulden was initially divided into 60 kreuzers. The currency was decimalized in 1857, using the same names for the unit and subunit.
The South German Gulden was the currency of the states of Southern Germany between 1754 and 1873. These states included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Frankfurt and Hohenzollern. It was divided into 60 kreuzer, with each kreuzer worth 4 pfennig or 8 heller.
The pound was the currency of the Canadas until 1858. It was subdivided into 20 shillings (s), each of 12 pence (d). In Lower Canada, the sou was used, equivalent to a halfpenny. Although the £sd accounting system had its origins in sterling, the Canadian pound was never at par with sterling's pound.
The Basel Thaler was a currency denomination worth 3 livres or 30 batzen used by the Swiss Canton of Basel until 1798. It was used by both the Canton and the Bishopric of Basel.
The Fribourg Gulden was a currency denomination worth 14 Batzen of the Swiss canton of Fribourg until 1798.
The gulden was the currency of the Swiss canton of Luzern until 1798. It was subdivided into 40 schilling, each of 3 rappen or 6 angster. Coins were also issued denominated in kreuzer and batzen. The French silver écu was equivalent to 3 gulden.
The cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy used a currency system consisting of based on the old unit of the Schilling, with the Schilling divided into 4 Rappen or 12 Haller. The Taler was a large silver coin equivalent to 72 Schilling or 2 Gulden that came into use in the 16th century. The Batzen was an intermediate coin equivalent to 2 Schilling or 1⁄18Gulden.
The Carolingian monetary system, also called the Carolingian coinage system or just the Carolingian system, was a currency structure introduced by Charlemagne in the late 8th century as part of a major reform, the effects of which subsequently dominated much of Europe, including Britain, for centuries. It is characterised by having three denominations with values in the ratio 1:20:240, the units of which went under different names in the different languages, but which corresponded to the Latin terms libra (pound), solidus (shilling) and denarius (penny), respectively.
