Hi again Paul, If I was winning that prize here in Canada I'd be expecting a whole bunch of those strange chicken like black birds with the white spots. :-) To justify this as an "educational" post, did you know that the British Guinea was originated in financial circles where it represented the cost of investing a Pound when the 5% brokerage charge was added. That is it was £1 1s 0p (I hope that comes out OK in your computer's font.) Quite why it became such a popular measure of currency I have never understood but - of course - it was eventually given official status with the minting of the golden guinea - real gold and actually worth 21 shillings when issued. (Have you ever seen one of those old English movies where the beggar is given a Sovereign (another - later - name for the Guinea) and bites it? Being gold it was supposed to be possible to dent it with a good strong bite so it was a check that the coin was genuine. True? - who knows!) Someone else on the list mentioned the Crown as worth 5 shillings and while I have been told that it was in circulation it either didn't last long or it was very unpopular. One interesting tid-bit about it though. During the second World War, when there were lots of US service men "on the loose" in England, the Halfcrown became known as a Half-a-dollar because the exchange for the US dollar was about 5 shillings, or a (mythical) Crown. When I left England in 1980 you would still be understood (in most places) if you said something was worth half a dollar. Although by then that was actually 12.5 new pence - which made it a pretty unusual thing to say! :-) Malcolm Archive CD Books Canada Inc. President: Malcolm Moody PO Box 11 Manotick Ontario, K4M 1A2 Canada. (613) 692-2667 WEB SITE: http://www.ArchiveCDBooks.ca On 23 Dec, 2007, at 9:21 PM, can-ont-simcoe-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > > > INCIDENTALLY, Malcolm, is the QUEEN'S PLATE, at Woodbine, still not > run for > 50 Guineas ? > > > > Keep it up, Good Folks, this is the Best Fun that I have had in > quite a > while !!!!! > > > > Paul Robins