# Just how much was tuppence, anyway? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2018, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991 "2018-03-04T01:06:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/21 "2018-03-04T09:59:18Z")
I’m 64 and have lived in England all my life. What follows is to the best of my memory 😕 When I was a lad (say early 60s), we had a pound note. This was divided into: - 2 ten shilling notes (known as ‘ten bob’’) and various coins - 8 half-crowns (silver, circular, large) - 20 shillings (silver, circular, medium) - 40 sixpences (silver, circular, small - thus two sixpences made a shilling) - 80 threepenny bits (yellow, 12 edges, small) - 120 twopences (bronze, circular, large) - 240 pennies (bronze, circular, medium) - 480 halfpennies (bronze, circular, small) - 960 farthings (bronze, circular, very small) ‘Tuppence’ was a frequently used word for a single twopence coin. There could have been a ‘Crown’, but I don’t remember it. I think my pocket money was about a shilling a week - or six tuppences. (I remember saving for about 10 weeks to buy something costing 50 pence.) You could buy **several sweets** with tuppence (gobstoppers, sherbet lemons come to mind), or go on a **short bus journey**. I’m not sure how much a **cinema ticket** cost - I would guess about a shilling (6 tuppences.) I expect you could buy a \*\*comic \*\*(The Beano) for tuppence. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/22 "2018-03-04T10:13:07Z")
> [@glee](#): > > … > You could buy **several sweets** with tuppence (gobstoppers, sherbet lemons come to mind), > or go on a **short bus journey**. > I’m not sure how much a **cinema ticket** cost - I would guess about a shilling (6 tuppences.) > I expect you could buy a \*\*comic \*\*(The Beano) for tuppence. If you were a little older you could also have bought a [tupenny upright](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KT-cAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA342&lpg=PA342&dq=tuppenny+upright&source=bl&ots=6vvgqEbO7C&sig=kx-GPapEXRqOqiIy-mU-8Kp3uk0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMoIOdttLZAhXqB8AKHTCRA_Y4ChDoATAGegQIBBAB#v=onepage&q=tuppenny%20upright&f=false). ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/23 "2018-03-04T10:32:37Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I’m 64 and have lived in England all my life. > What follows is to the best of my memory 😕 > > When I was a lad (say early 60s), we had a pound note. This was divided into: > > - 2 ten shilling notes (known as ‘ten bob’') > > and various coins > > - 8 half-crowns (silver, circular, large) > - 20 shillings (silver, circular, medium) > - 40 sixpences (silver, circular, small - thus two sixpences made a shilling) > - 80 threepenny bits (yellow, 12 edges, small) > - 120 twopences (bronze, circular, large) > - 240 pennies (bronze, circular, medium) > - 480 halfpennies (bronze, circular, small) > - 960 farthings (bronze, circular, very small) The list leaves out the florin, equal to 2 shillings. Since there were 10 florins to the pound, this was a first step towards decimalisation, and florins could be used as 10p coins after decimalisation, just as shillings could be used as 5p coins. I lived in England 1947-1955 and 1961, and I don’t think I ever saw a 2 penny (2d) coin. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/24 "2018-03-04T11:45:09Z")
Back in the day, in them old movies, everything seemed to me some amount of “Bob”. Still hear it regularly in Brit tv and movies. Can’t help wondering, how much is a bob? Same as back then? More now? Less? And really, what’d bob stand come from anyway? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/25 "2018-03-04T13:02:04Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Back in the day, in them old movies, everything seemed to me some amount of “Bob”. > > Still hear it regularly in Brit tv and movies. Can’t help wondering, how much is a bob? > > Same as back then? More now? Less? > > And really, what’d bob stand come from anyway? A ‘bob’ was a shilling. (Like a ‘dime’ is 10 cents in the US.) The OED says the origin is unknown. Note that the old symbol for a penny was ‘d’, not ‘p’. 1 shilling = 12d In Scotland, a bawbee was 6d, a plack was 4d, and bodle was 2d. Up to 1707 there were 12 Scottish pounds to an English pound. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/26 "2018-03-04T14:45:16Z")
Christ, the question ain’t why the Empire fell. It’s how y’all held onto it so long thinking like that. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/27 "2018-03-04T15:17:24Z")
“d” is still used for nail sizes, isn’t it? Decimal is much easier for calculating, but twelve is easier for measurement tools, as it can be divided by so many numbers, every thing under it but 5 & 7 & 11. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/28 "2018-03-04T15:17:56Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Christ, the question ain’t why the Empire fell. It’s how y’all held onto it so long thinking like that. The whole thing was clearly designed to trip up German spies posing as Brits. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/29 "2018-03-04T15:28:03Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Back in the day, in them old movies, everything seemed to me some amount of “Bob”. > > Still hear it regularly in Brit tv and movies. Can’t help wondering, how much is a bob? > > Same as back then? More now? Less? > > And really, what’d bob stand come from anyway? As **GreenWyvern** said, a bob was a shilling. Now, it’s occasionally used for a pound, though it’s not very common in my experience. Quid would be more usual. Technically £1 should worth much more than a shilling, which, at decimalisation, was worth 5p, but in terms of purchasing power a modern bob won’t get you as much as a good old bob. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/30 "2018-03-04T16:48:38Z")
It gets stranger - Marks and Guineas. If we go back further in time to the 15th, 16th, and 17th century, we often see what seem at first sight to be strange uneven amounts, such as: £6 13s 4d £1 6s 8d These are actually exact amounts in ‘ **Marks** ’ - a similar name to the old German currency. 1 Mark = £⅔ (two thirds of a Pound) So 1 Mark = 13s 4d Half a Mark, or one third of a Pound, was 6s 8d. A Mark was a _concept_, not an actual coin, or actual currency. So if you left someone 10 Marks in a will, you would denominate it in legal currency as £6 13s 4d. The **guinea** was £1 and 1s, or 21s. Amounts for prizes, for professional fees of doctors or lawyers, and for art work, were often given in guineas. The idea was that there was a ‘bonus’ on top of the number of pounds. There were actual guinea coins (as well as ‘sovereign’ coins equal to £1.) The advantage of the guinea as a concept was that it was evenly divisible by 7, 14, 21, and 28 - very useful if you were calculating weekly wages from a daily wage. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/31 "2018-03-04T17:01:55Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > The advantage of the guinea as a concept was that it was evenly divisible by 7, 14, 21, and 28 - very useful if you were calculating weekly wages from a daily wage. The guinea as a currency concept still survives in livestock and racehorse auctions. The purchaser pays in guineas ie multiples of £1.05, and the seller receives the same amount of pounds. The auctioneer keeps the difference as commission. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/32 "2018-03-04T17:09:26Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > The guinea as a currency concept still survives in livestock and racehorse auctions. The purchaser pays in guineas ie multiples of £1.05, and the seller receives the same amount of pounds. The auctioneer keeps the difference as commission. That’s a nice way to keep tract of the (very reasonable) buyer’s premium ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/33 "2018-03-04T17:35:05Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > ‘cent’ as in per cent, i.e. 100 to the (whatever). > > In the British system, pence are also called pennies, but never cents. Which was my exact point, if you notice. :smack: Well, that and the fact that the penny wasn’t a “cent”. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/34 "2018-03-04T20:12:34Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Christ, the question ain’t why the Empire fell. It’s how y’all held onto it so long thinking like that. Oh, I know. And all that nonsense with ounces, pounds, pints and gallons and so forth. Utter madness. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/35 "2018-03-04T20:25:45Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Christ, the question ain’t why the Empire fell. It’s how y’all held onto it so long thinking like that. Young schoolboys trained on problems like, “What is 3½% of £5 3s 4d?” Once you’ve learned how to do sums like those, quelling a native uprising is easy. (The answer is 3s 7.4d, in case you are interested.) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/36 "2018-03-04T21:12:11Z")
I opened my first bank account in around 1976 with $5. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/37 "2018-03-04T23:52:26Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Young schoolboys trained on problems like, “What is 3½% of £5 3s 4d?” Once you’ve learned how to do sums like those, quelling a native uprising is easy. > > (The answer is 3s 7.4d, in case you are interested.) … and they had to work out problems like that _without a calculator_, only a pencil and paper. … and probably got hit over the knuckles with a ruler if they got it wrong.  :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/38 "2018-03-05T01:17:24Z")
I’ve got sixpence. Jolly, jolly sixpence! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/39 "2018-03-05T01:38:53Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > The whole thing was clearly designed to trip up German spies posing as Brits. Going a LONG way back, I remember a segment on a game show (I want to say _ **What’s My Line?** _) where the mystery guest (probably someone like LeCarre) gave the panelists some espionage problems to solve (this was probably around 1964, at the height of the Bond craze). In one, MI5 was trailing a suspected foreign agent masquerading as an Englishman in London. It went something like this: _Mr X stopped at a tobacconist, bought a box of Gitanes and a copy of **The Times** , and counted out his money very slowly. He stopped at a fish-and-chips shop for lunch, and ate the fish but left the chips. There was a light sprinkle outside, but he didn’t bother unfolding his umbrella. He then stopped at a curb [kerb], looked over his left shoulder and then his right, and crossed the street. He was arrested as he was returning to work at the Foreign Office that afternoon._ **Question:** What was the tipoff that he was an agent? He didn’t cross the street like an Englishman. In the UK, they drive on the left side of the road, so if Mr X was indeed English, he would have automatically looked over his right shoulder first. Did you guess the correct answer? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/40 "2018-03-05T01:48:33Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve got sixpence. > > Jolly, jolly sixpence! With a voice like that, you need it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991.md?page=3)