Can someone please explain British currency?

I am an American but I watch loads of BBC, in fact that is the only thing I wathc..anyway- I am having trouble relating British currency to American. What are the names of all of your currency and how can I relate it to American to better understand...I really appreciate this... :)
Additional Details
This seems so confusing! ok. I know that it takes 2 dollars to make a pound. But what i am getting from this is that 100 pence = 1 pound. 1 pound is also a quid? what is a quid? I have heard it used... anyway- you have notes that are larger pounds and coins for smaller pounds. A pence is like a penny and a pound is like a dollar. ... not to sound like i am making fun but don't your pockets get heavy?

American curerency is: a penny = 1 cent
a nickel= 5 cent
a dime=10 cent
a quater=25 cent
(we also have 50 cent pieces but no one uses them they collect them)
we have 1,5,10,20,50,100 dollar bills
100 pennies= one dollar
20 nickels=1 dollar
10 dimes=1 dollar
4 quaters=1 dollar
I bet that sounds confusing to some, Thank you all!!!

Well. In England paper wise, there are the £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes. Along side those there is the £1 and £2 coin. We also have a 1 penny, 2 penny,10 penny, 20 penny, and a 50 penny piece. The common use would be '50 pence piece' or '20 pence piece'. Not sure if this is the answer you were looking for but i hope that it helps.

100 cents = 1 dollar
100 new pence = 1 pound
approx 1.9 dollars to pound
1 pence is about or near 2 cents
dont come over here or you will be ripped off
example 1 gallon of gas(petrol) will cost you about 8 or 9 dollars
you think you have it tough try the british gov.

I don't know much about American currency so I don't know how I can relate it better for you, but I'll explain all the denominations we have anyway!

1p, 2p (both bronze/copper coins)

5p, 10p, 20p, 50p (silver colour)

£1 (100p in each pound coin) - these are gold in colour

£2 (200p in each £2 coin) gold outline and silver in the middle

£5 coin (never seen one before, but apparently it's very big and silver)

£5 note, £10 note, £20 note, £50 note (the £5 aka a fiver is widely circulated around the UK and ATMs don't dispense them as it costs more money to fill the machines up with them or something)

Other than that I dunno how I can help! :)

further to earlier answers, americans have dimes and nickels, where in this country we also have other names for our denominations which can have regional variations (rhyming slang & others) for example:

50 pence = ten bob (a bob in 'old money' was 5p hence ten bob)
5 pounds = a fiver, or in slang a lady godiva
10 pounds = a tenner, or ayrton senna
25 pounds = a pony
100 pounds = a ton
1000 pounds = a grand, or bag of sand

pence= cents pounds = dollers
100 pence is 1 pound

£1 is a quid, 50pence is half a quid. 20pence and 5pence make half 50 pence. There is also one and two pence. They are the coins. Then we have a fiver and a tenner. A £20 and £50 which are the notes.Hope this helps.

Just double it or half it.

ie One pound (£) is about two dollars
One pence (p) is about two cents

We no longer use shillings tanners bob etc. so you can forget about them,

a nickel= 5 cent
a dime=10 cent
a quater=25 cent

We use similar coins but don't give them names anymore. just 1p 2p 5p 10p 20p 50p

The notes (bills) are similarly £5 £10 £20 £50 amounts.

A quid is just a slang word for a pound

A pound is 100 pennies. We have the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, 1 pound and 2 pound coins. (unless it's changed, haven't been in the uk for two years now!)
Then the 5, 10, 20 and 50 pound notes.
1 pound is roughly 2 dollars.

Understanding British currency? Sounds like you're fighting an impossible battle, dear.

Go to :
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/
There's a lot of good info!

http://thecapitalscot.com/pastfeatures/britishcurrency.html

if you've been watching old BBC programs, the currency used to work like this: [i think]

12 pence = 1 shilling

20 shillings = 1 pound sterling [sterling = 92.5% silver]

thus,

240 pence per pound

I seem to recall that for quite a long time [prior to 1920 or so], the value of the American dollar was fixed such that 2.4 of them were equal to a pound sterling -- and thus that the British penny and American penny were of equal value. [So was the Canadian penny.]

***
there were also other units, usually pre-1920

1 farthing = 1/4 penny

2 farthings = 1 halfpenny ["ha'penny"]

4 farthings = 1 penny [but the plural of penny in money is pence, pennies meant to literally have that many penny pieces]

tuppence = 2 pence; a piece worth 2 pennies.

there also used to be a three penny or three pence coin.

and long ago, a sterling coin worth four pennies circulated under the name "groat" - it was the same weight of sterling as a coin of the same name used in Holland and Belgium.

half shilling = 6 pence

1 crown = 5 shillings or 60 pence or 1/4 pound
the crown was minted in sterling and (i believe) originally had a crown on the obverse {face}.

was there a half-crown piece [30 pence or 2 shillings and a half]? I seem to remember reading of them somewhere, so I think yes.

***
the original [very early] coin was the silver penny. it's fineness was fixed at 92.5% which was called sterling. [pure silver is too soft for coinage; it would wear away with use] Later, the penny was made of bronze.

the pound sterling was originally fixed as a literal pound's weight of sterling pennies. They were stamped in a die with the head of the reigning monarch.

for obvious reasons, the pound coinage became a bank note that could be exchanged for a pound of 92.5% (sterling) silver.

the well to do also used a small gold coin named the guinea, which was worth 21 shillings. [I know the difference between the value of the pound and guinea is a bit odd.]

the guinea was 99.5% gold. as in the sterling coins, pure gold is too soft to be used as coinage due to wear.

it was apparently a mark of one's wealth to pay a bill for N pounds by giving the person owed N guineas and ignoring the change.

the gold for a guinea originally came from the west african land of the same name.

***
then there are the more recent and obvious fiver and tenner, which are bank notes worth five pounds and ten pounds, respectively.

there might have been others and I admit that I've forgotten.

No. Only the resurrected ghost of Shakespeare might have a stab at it, but he'd resort to metaphors that do not relate to our time. If you can get Sir MaCa on the line, he might help. If you dunno who that is, ask a Baby Boomer.

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