What year is it?

[bigbadjack]

If we started counting our years 2013 years ago and everything before that we call B.C, what year did the folk living before B.C think they were living in???

[The L J Monk]

That's only the year according to the Western Calendar.

It's 2556 in Thailand for example.

[Bentley Bullet]

I've got an old coin with 25 B.C. written on it. How much do you think it's worth?

[RTID75]

If it's the one with the Doc's De Lorean on it, it's truly unique and must be worth a fortune!

[Filo]

I've got an old coin with 25 B.C. written on it. How much do you think it's worth?

Depends which rulers head is on the coin

[wilts rover]

Interesting question. The Gregorian calendar we use today was invented in 1582 to replace the Julian calendar which had an error of one day every 128 years in it. We implemented the change in 1752 and 'lost' 11 days as a result, which caused riots across the country as people 'lost' 11 days wages, but still paid a years taxes. The Julian calendar is so called because it was introduced by Julius Ceaser in 45BC.

Famously the Mayan calendar came to an end last year. Due to the inconvieince of the world not ending it began again, so according to that we are in Year 1. Or if you wish to look at it that way, we are all only a year old.

[wilts rover]

I've got an old coin with 25 B.C. written on it. How much do you think it's worth?

We get requests like this all the time at work. Although we ar enot allowed to give valuations I often direct people to ebay to look at similar items, or to go for an expert valuation at an auctioneer who specialises in numismatics. I do also say that actually anything is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. So this coin whilst it may be of highly significant value to you is worth absolutely nowt to me.

[Filo]

We implemented the change in 1752 and 'lost' 11 days as a result, which caused riots across the country as people 'lost' 11 days wages, but still paid a years taxes.

Were the nasty party in power in 1752 as well!

[Dutch Uncle]

We implemented the change in 1752 and 'lost' 11 days as a result, which caused riots across the country as people 'lost' 11 days wages, but still paid a years taxes.

Were the nasty party in power in 1752 as well!

I seem to remember one of the reasons for the riots was that most people thought they were fated to die on a particular day - so they reckoned they were all losing 11 days of their life. Not sure what they reckoned would happen to people fated to die in the 11 days about to start though.

Somebody may just have made that up and spun me the yarn when I was a kid.......... which would have been pretty soon after the Gregorian Calendar was introduced .....

[Bentley Bullet]

Surely the correct date now is A.D. 74?

King Alick Jeffrey was born in 1939, and simple maths therefor means owt before that year was B.K.A.

[wilts rover]

Dutch, just been doing a little checking (which I should have done before posting) and just like BB's coin, it looks as though we both may have been taken in by an urban myth.
http://www.academia.edu/2342015/Give_us_our_eleven_days_

Filo, for ordinary working people the nasty party has always been in power.....

[Dutch Uncle]

Thanks Wilts

Of course protests about changes in time are not just a thing of the past - they are still going strong at my old College........

http://freespace.virgin.net/barry.press/home/time/official.html

This was started as a spoof by a friend and fellow mathematician when I was there more than 40 years ago as a protest against Summer Time - and apparently now it has become so well known and popular that the college have to shut their doors all day to stop outsiders overcrowding the event......

To quote the current college student website:

'The Time Ceremony takes place in Fellows quad at 2 am on the last Sunday in October when the clocks are turned back. We Mertonians believe that by walking backwards dressed in subfusc and drinking port, we are saving the universe by stabilising the time-space continuum.'

Sorry - couldn't resist 

Edit:

http://oxfordstudent.com/2012/11/02/merton-rescues-the-universe-once-again/

This link actually has a picture of my daughter in it.

[Donnywolf]

If we started counting our years 2013 years ago and everything before that we call B.C, what year did the folk living before B.C think they were living in???

I don't know but we have a saying "lets go back to the Drawing Board" but before they existed where would we have gone ?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Aye. And where did people get bombed back to before the Stone Age?

[The Red Baron]

We implemented the change in 1752 and 'lost' 11 days as a result, which caused riots across the country as people 'lost' 11 days wages, but still paid a years taxes.

Were the nasty party in power in 1752 as well!

It was the Whigs in those days, though in a coalition with some Tories known as the "Broad Bottom Ministry." The PM was Henry Pelham.

[The Red Baron]

Aye. And where did people get bombed back to before the Stone Age?

I suppose it would be the Pliocene age!

[RobTheRover]

That would be a great line in a Samuel L Jackson movie.

"I'm gonna bomb yo ass back to the Plastocene Age, mofo!"