Guinea (gn)

Originally a gold coin, it evolved into a prestige unit of account worth 21 shillings.

Because guineas were struck from high-purity gold imported from the Guinea coast, they acquired a cachet the pound never had, and the twenty-one shilling value made them a professional’s unit rather than a labourer’s. Lawyers, doctors, architects and auctioneers quoted in guineas; so did horse dealers, tailors and art sales. The arithmetic was the point: a fee quoted in guineas paid the practitioner a pound and left the extra shilling for his agent or his clerk, which is why the convention outlived the coin by a century and a half. The guinea ceased to be minted in 1813 but persisted as a unit of account, written gn or gns, and racecourses still name their classic races after it. The 1,000 Guineas and 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket take their names from their original prize funds.