On Thu, 14 Nov 2002, at around 08:43:10 local time, jonmac
<jonmac@ndirect.co.uk> wrote:
>THE SORDID MATTER OF COIN
>The world is indebted to m' learned friend, Mr Mawson on his erudite
>explanations of our various currencies over the last 2000 years. Thank you,
>Michael - I know I shall sleep soundly when I snuff the candle tonight.
>However, just one or two miniscule additions if I may?
>The two shilling piece was also know as the 'two bob bit'
>You referred to the dollar and half dollar? This may cause confusion in the
>western or antipodean colonies as to the existence of dollar or half dollar
>terminologies?
>In those far off days when the Pound could actually be exchanged for another
>unit of currency (though who would want to do this, I can't possibly
>imagine) a rate of exchange which prevailed for years for the United States
>dollar, was 4 of their dollars for 1 of our Pounds (or Pinds if you live in
>Esher or Virginia Water?) Conveniently, as the Pound was 20 shillings and a
>quarter of a Pound was 5 shillings (or a Crown), I believe the cockneys
>called it a dollar? Even more conveniently 2/6 being Half a Crown, logically
>became half a dollar.
Absolutely right, of course.
A significant proportion of British slang has its roots within earshot
of Bow bells. Just to confuse the issue even further, the word Cockney
was originally coined (in the nineteenth century) as a vaguely-insulting
term to refer to upwardly-mobile members of the lower middle classes of
London, (bank clerks and so on, who inhabited the then-new rows of small
semi-detached "villas" in what became known as suburbia); it now refers
exclusively to working class Londoners from the East End (be it noted
that there is no such word as "EastEnders"). Modern-day Cockneys claim
that only a person born within the sound of the bells of the church in
Bow is a "true" Cockney.
>As to someone's query on what we now call loose change, I refer to mine as
>'bottle tops' and they're about as interesting and as negotiable as those
>aluminium French Francs of 40 odd years ago. Shiny, tiny - and mostly
>useless.
I must have missed that query. In my family, we habitually refer to
this as "shrapnel"; yet another term for odd useless bits of metal.
BTW, those New Francs make excellent aluminium repair washers, the 5F
piece in particular.
ATB
--
Mike
Ellie - 1963 White Herald 1200 Convertible GA125624 CV
Connie - 1968 Conifer Herald 1200 Saloon GA237511 DL
Carly - 1977 Inca Yellow Spitfire 1500 FM105671
/// spitfires@autox.team.net mailing list
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|