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lethargic_manWhy did names for amounts of money change when they decimalised it? I can see why "shilling" dropped out of usage, along with the likes of "bob", "tanner", "crown", "sovereign", "dollar" (for 5/-), "florin"*, and so forth. But why did the term for "two pence" (the amount, not the coin) change from "tuppence" to "2p"? Perhaps it was just so you could tell whether someone was referring to old currency or new. If so, it seems a bit of a shame; the term "fippence" could have come into its own, now there was a coin that actually had that value...
* Quaestio: Did people continue using this term, given that the coin remained in circulation as a 10p piece for many years?
* Quaestio: Did people continue using this term, given that the coin remained in circulation as a 10p piece for many years?
no subject
I remember (just) the ½p coin, and a lot of people called the coins ha'pennies. But I think when describing the amount, they'd say "2 and a half p" rather than "tuppence ha'penny". I know various people, mostly of my parents' generation or older, who describe prices as multiples of 5p, called bob ("I think 12 bob for a cauliflower is a bit steep"). I've never heard the word florin used outside pre-decimalization literature, though.
I agree that fippence would be a cool word, though!
no subject
Date: 2003-11-02 05:02 am (UTC)I've never heard anyone use "bob" (except once, in a story in my school magazine circa 1985). (And I have no idea whether twelve bob for a cauliflower is a bit steep or not.)
Just my tuppence ha'penny.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-02 05:43 am (UTC)LSD
Date: 2003-11-02 05:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-02 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-02 07:01 am (UTC)Though seriously I think inflation is killing this usage slowly; there are fewer and fewer things that one can actually buy for 'a few bob' in this sense. And clearly people don't talk about 'a hundred bob' when they mean a fiver.
Re: LSD
Date: 2003-11-02 07:06 am (UTC)I have fun writing out cheques for "X pounds, no shillings and no pence". I've never done that for non-integral numbers of pounds, though; I'm sure it would confuse bank clerks. (Likewise cheques for amounts in guineas.)
no subject
Date: 2003-11-02 07:12 am (UTC)You write 'no shillings' on cheques? That's so cute!
Re: LSD
Date: 2003-11-02 07:23 am (UTC)Re: LSD
Tell me you're joking?! If you said that to get a reaction out of me you certainly succeeded; I nearly fell out of my chair! You can't actually be telling me that your people go about publicly auctioning mitzvot to the highest bidder? Doing it in guineas is just amusing, but actually doing it in the first place... woah.
have a listen next time you're there
You mean they do it on shabbat as well?! I'm amazed I didn't notice before (though admittedly, last time I was in Newcastle, I was trying to get through all my davening the gaps between aliyot, which would be why I wasn't concentrating at those times).
It's lucky you've told me this, cos if I'd seen it happening without warning I'd quite probably have wanted to point and go "Aargh! Freaks!"
Re: LSD
Date: 2003-11-02 03:26 pm (UTC)(And I must find out the proper Unicode character for a right-to-left space, because using a left-to-right one is completely buggering up my word flow.)
no subject
Really? I've believed the opposite for so long I can't even remember where I heard it. Wrong pedantry is very bad. I shall crawl away and hide in a corner now...
LSD
Date: 2003-11-02 06:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-02 07:04 am (UTC)Should've known you'd pick up on that one! The shameful truth is that I also have no idea how much cauliflowers are supposed to cost, I just picked numbers out of the air. But when people use 'bob' they do generally seem to be complaining about things being too expensive.