Dad was a huge fan of not only Cockney Rhyming slang, but also terms used to denote currency denominations. Being a costermonger/Barrow-boy for many years, he used slang terms all the time.
Still widely used today are 'Monkey' and 'Pony' £500 and £25 respectively. It's widely known these slang terms derive from the British army in India, referring to the pictures on Rupee notes...i.e a monkey on a 500 rupee note and a small horse/pony on the 25 rupee note.
Other slang terms that also survived decimalisation are Bottle and Carpet: (although both have other meanings outside of monetary term)
Bottle = two pounds, or earlier tuppence (2d), from the cockney rhyming slang: bottle of spruce/glue = deuce/two (= two pounds or tuppence). Later used to refer to the sum of two hundred.
The term Carpet has since the early 1900s been used by bookmakers and horse-racing, where carpet refers to odds of three-to-one, and in car dealing, where it refers to an amount of £300.
In slang terms, its said to have originated from the shortest prison term of three months, where cells had a carpet in the middle that were three feet by three, although some say it took three months in the prison workshop to make a carpet.
Well known denominational substitutes that many millennials today probably won’t of heard of.
6d – tanner/sprazie
1s – a bob
2s – florin
2s6d – half a crown
5s – a crown
£1 – Nicker/Nugget
£5 – Lady Godiva/a ching
£10 – Cock and Hen/Cockle
Most of the smaller amounts have disappeared because ofdecimalisation whereas larger denominations are still widely in use
£20 – Score/Apple Core
£25 – Pony
£50 – Bullseye
£100 – Ton/One'r
£500 – Monkey
£1,000 – Grand/Bag of sand/ Long'en
Note that not too many Cockney rhyming slang words are used in monetary terms then. Plus many used today are modern inventions.
The thrupenny bit
People of certain age groups will still fondly remember the 12-sided brass threepenny bit, but before 1947 the threepence was a small silver coin. The threepence style coin dates back to around 1550 but was not continuously minted. When reintroduced, the silver threepenny piece was given the nicknamed 'a Joey'.
Originally the small silver coin was called a groat (4 pence). The name change came about just after the reintroduction of the coin in the 1830’s by the politician Joseph Hume, MP (1777-1855).
Hume was upset with cabbies pretending they hadn’t got change for short cab rides (so to get a bigger tip) so he campaigned for more small change and for the 4d Britannia Groat to be re-issued.
But instead of a 4 pence coin being reintroduced, the Groat was replaced by the silver 3 pence coin (4 coins to one Shilling appeal more rather than just 3)and the nickname Joey (after Joseph Hume) stuck.
There are a few examples regarding the sixpence.
Victorian etymology sounds like guessing, but it could also be very true. John Sigismund Tanner, was a medallist and designer at the Royal Mint. It was he who designed the sixpenny piece for George II, and it’s extremely likely his name stuck for the coin right up until decimalisation.
Another explanation, although pure speculation, links the Tanner with a small Indian coin worth 2 annas, slightly smaller than a sixpence and silver in colour.
Could 'tanner' be a corruption of 'two annas'?
England had long been trading with the sub-continent so the coinage would be well known particularly to the merchants and sailors.
Another Indian linked explanation, a rupee was worth roughly a shilling, and was divided into sixteen annas. Half of a shilling was sixpence, half of a rupee was eight annas, or in Hindi, "aat anna" - a tanner.
Cockney rhyming slang for a sixpence is Sprarsy Anna which again appears to have links to the rupee.
I also remember the sixpence referred to as a deanna, but can’t find any definition for this.
There is no definitive definition for a 'bob'.
Although this is the closest we could find:
Usage of bob for shilling dates back to the late 1700s. ... Brewer's 1870 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable states that 'bob' could be derived from 'Bawbee', which was 16-19th century slang for a half-penny, in turn derived from: French 'bas billon', meaning debased copper money (coins were commonly cut in sections to make change).
It’s interesting to note that there is no plural for 'bob' 10 shillings is 10 Bob and not 10 bobs.
The Florin. Two Shillings
The florin derives it’s name from a gold coin minted in Florence/Italy.
The first ever two shilling pieces were minted in solid gold and are referred to as the British florin. It’s believed that there are only two intact original florins left in existence, which are extremely valuable. The last time one appeared in a private sale, it went for £400,000.
The next two coins are easier to understand. The first 5 shilling piece was called a crown as it depicted a royal crown on the reverse and the half crown speakers for itself.
The half crown was widely referred to as a tosheroon origins unknown.
1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London:
The best rig-out you ever ’ad. A tosheroon for the coat, two ’og for the trousers, one and a tanner for the boots, and a ’og for the cap and scarf. That’s seven bob.’
This leads us to the Quid/Nicker.
We know that the word Quid has been in English use since at least 1661. It is taken as meaning one pound sterling but over the years would have applied to a number of monetary items: the Guinea, the Sovereign, the pound note and now the pound coin.
The Sovereign was the original pound coin, as was the Guinea (although later was given a higher status as equal to one pound and one shilling). In more recent times, Cockney traders tended to call pounds 'Sovs' rather than quids as it confused customers who then wouldn’t query prices.
Where the name ‘quid’ derives from is harder to ascertain. The most likely source is from the Latin phrase Quid pro quo which means “something for something” or “this for that”. The term Quid is never pluralised (that’s 25 quid).
Also the origins of the term 'Nicker/Nicka' are unknown. It came into use in the early 1900's and is another slang word that is never pluralised.
The Pound Sterling …oldest currency that has been in continuous use.
The word Sterling is another very old term that has uncertain origins. One theory is that it was derived from a silver Saxon coin called a sterling. There were 240 sterlings in one pound (weight) of silver. Another idea is that the coins were made from Easterling Silver from Germany, a silver that was 92.5% pure. Another is that the name came from Norman silver pennies which had a star printed on them; the old English name for a little star was steorling. No-one knows for sure.
The Big Switchover
On the 15 of February 1971 we change over to decimalisation, introducing new coins designed by Christopher Ironside MBE.
The first coin had already been removed from circulation in the run up to D-Day and that was the Farthing, which ceased to be legal tender in New Years Eve 1960.
The last "old" halfpenny minted for circulation was 1967, although 1970 halfpennies were issued in "Farewell" proof sets of that year.
There are virtually no nicknames for coins in current use, because they have so little value. But I have heard the 20p coin referred to as a spanner….obviously because of its similarity to the shape of a nut.
As a kid growing up in the 60's, I had an out and out favourite slang term…
A Kibosh!
Used extensively by costermongers and market traders....a kibosh denoted the princely sum of 1s and 6d, 18 pence in old money.
So where did this originate?
Dad told me that in Victorian times, court officers (bailiffs) would deliver a court warrant by bashing on the door with their walking stick known as a Ki or Kye. Earlier bailiffs had a sort of truncheon/mace.
Delivering the summons was referred to as putting the kibosh on someone. The price of the warrant was said to be 18 pence.
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