I think they didn't. It is a mix of colloquialisms of different origins (one farthing is "one fourth-ing" said too many times) but some might have been localized versions, etc or just used in specific situations.
So I'm pretty sure most people knew some of those but not all of them.
But if you think about it penny/nickel/dime etc is also confusing. Less confusing but still. Just tell me I'm 15 cents short or something like that.
I'm not sure there's a whole paragraph in this article without an error, omission or oversight.
Mite doesn't have a standard definition. My unabridged Oxford dictionary says it was just a very small amount of money, and people gave it various definitions.
Copper means any copper coin, it's never been specific to a one penny coin. Currently it means the copper-coloured coins, 1p or 2p.
Groats as coins worth four pence were last issued in 1662, and according to the OED later 4 pence coins were called fourpence or fourpenny bits/pieces, including in casual speech.
Most of the words are straightforward fractions or multiples of a penny, with optional slurred pronunciations:
¼ penny = farthing
½ penny = halfpenny or ha'penny
1 penny, usually abbreviated as 1d
2 pence = tuppence
3 pence = thruppence, thre'penny bit
4 pence = fourpence piece, fourpenny bit
6 pence = sixpence (slang: tanner)
12 pence = 1 shilling (slang: bob)
2 shillings = 1 florin (slang: two bob bit)
2s 6d = half crown
5 shillings = 1 crown
20 shillings = 4 crowns = 1 pound
21 shillings = 1 guinea
As I understand it, normally prices and other quantities were spoken in pounds, shillings and pence unless they fitted a coin exactly. Something cost "6 shillings", not "1 crown 1 shilling" or "3 florins" etc.
Just like the USA, where a movie ticket presumably once cost a nickel, then a dime, but then 15 cents. (Although none of the old words above are in standard usage in Britain.)
They all sound pretty standard to me, with the exception of "mite". I think at one point most people would absolutely have known all of them, but there were hundreds or thousands of other regional variations that would have been less known.
I know lots of old people who are absolutely fluent with almost all these terms (excluding 'mite' and 'groat'), could reckon with them quickly and accurately, and who (when I was younger) would quickly and accurately translate decimalized amounts into shillings and pence.
I think they didn't. It is a mix of colloquialisms of different origins (one farthing is "one fourth-ing" said too many times) but some might have been localized versions, etc or just used in specific situations.
So I'm pretty sure most people knew some of those but not all of them.
But if you think about it penny/nickel/dime etc is also confusing. Less confusing but still. Just tell me I'm 15 cents short or something like that.