# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/61 "2018-03-06T05:40:46Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > I am your age and British, and I do not recall a tuppence coin. There wasn’t one circulating in the 20th century (though they were still made for the annual Royal Maundy service). There were two experiments with them in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but they both flopped. One was a massive copper coin and the other was a small silver coin. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/62 "2018-03-06T07:03:11Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Yes, when I did the math it came to $1.02546 in today’s money. And that seems about right. In those days (from what I’ve read) you might give tuppence as a tip, as you might give a dollar today. [https://futureboy.us/fsp/dollar.fsp?quantity=2¤cy=pence&fromYear=1914](https://futureboy.us/fsp/dollar.fsp?quantity=2¤cy=pence&fromYear=1914) ‘2 pence in 1914 had the same buying power as 1.02 current dollars.’ ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/63 "2018-03-06T12:36:50Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > they were still made for the annual Royal Maundy service [Interesting](https://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/maundy-money/). I’d never heard of this before. (Royal Maundy or Maundy Money or a day called Maundy or the word Maundy.) ---
**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 6, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/64 "2018-03-06T19:34:55Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > I’ve always preferred the Mary Poppins books to the movie. They are definitely weirder, and sometimes less benevolent. I read the first book as an adult, mostly alone in my apartment at 2:00 in the morning. The chapter at the zoo really freaked me out, especially when she spoke with the serpent. I was surprised at just how different the book was from the Disney movie, which is one of the best memories from my childhood. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/65 "2018-03-06T19:59:19Z")
> [@Oswald\_Bastable](#): > > Well, it’s the USAns that are now keeping it going with their archaic system of weights and measurements… 😉 > > OB Stop using “stone” and then we’ll talk 😉 ---
**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 6, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/66 "2018-03-06T20:08:03Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I read the first book as an adult, mostly alone in my apartment at 2:00 in the morning. The chapter at the zoo really freaked me out, especially when she spoke with the serpent. Mary Poppins is the first cousin once removed of the Hamadryad. > [@](#): > > And after all,” he went on, flicking his terrible little forked tongue in and out as he spoke, “it may be that to eat and be eaten are the same thing in the end. My wisdom tells me that this is probably so. We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the Jungle, you of the City. The same substance composes us – the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star – we are all one, all moving to the same end. Remember that when you no longer remember me, my child.” > > “But how can tree be stone? A bird is not me. Jane is not a tiger,” said Michael stoutly. > > “You think not?” said the Hamadryad’s hissing voice. “Look!” and he nodded his head towards the moving mass of creatures before them. Birds and animals were now swaying together, closely encircling Mary Poppins, who was rocking lightly from side to side. Backwards and forwards went the swaying crowd, keeping time together, swinging like the pendulum of a clock. Even the trees were bending and lifting gently, and the moon seemed to be rocking in the sky as a ship rocks on the sea. > > “Bird and beast and stone and star – we are all one, all one—” murmured the Hamadryad, softly folding his hood about him as he himself swayed between the children. > > “Child and serpent, star and stone – all one.” ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/67 "2018-03-06T22:25:47Z")
> [@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. I’ve also heard that structure was used in upper end clothing shops; the proprietor got the pound and the clerk got the shilling. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/68 "2018-03-06T22:40:12Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Seems just right to me. The movie made clear, I thought, that tuppence was a trivial amount (just right for feeding birds), adding humor to the bank’s eagerness to get their hands on it! I think the point of the movie scene was the contrast of values. The father could think of nothing higher than investing even a trivial amount to put it to work in order to teach his son to do business, while the boy looked to the humanitarian use of contributing to the livelihood of the old woman seller and the birds it benefited. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/69 "2018-03-07T14:55:30Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I was surprised at just how different the book was from the Disney movie, which is one of the best memories from my childhood. Travers disliked very much Disney’s treatment of Mary Poppins which is why there was never a sequel (despite Disney’s interest to do so). In fact, she stipulated in her will that any American company be banned from adapting her works to any other medium. There was a [movie](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140373/reference) about it but a lot of incidents were fictionalized and, being a Disney release, it showed Travers being wooed over by Unca Walt in the end but it was ot so. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/70 "2018-03-07T16:17:27Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Travers disliked very much Disney’s treatment of Mary Poppins which is why there was never a sequel (despite Disney’s interest to do so). In fact, she stipulated in her will that any American company be banned from adapting her works to any other medium. There was a [movie](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140373/reference) about it but a lot of incidents were fictionalized and, being a Disney release, it showed Travers being wooed over by Unca Walt in the end but it was ot so. Well, yes, she was, she let him do the Film. But yes, there were issues and creative differences. She did mention she liked a couple of the songs. And there is a sequel coming out. ---
**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 7, 2018, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/71 "2018-03-07T16:30:14Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Travers disliked very much Disney’s treatment of Mary Poppins which is why there was never a sequel (despite Disney’s interest to do so). In fact, she stipulated in her will that any American company be banned from adapting her works to any other medium. I find it interesting she was so negative after the fact. Disney began negotiating for the rights a long way back (ca. 1938, IIRC). She must have had some idea of what the studio would probably do with it. (And it was planned from the beginning to be a musical.) Why sign them over in the first place if she found that type of treatment so objectionable? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/72 "2018-03-07T16:33:42Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I find it interesting she was so negative after the fact. Disney began negotiating for the rights a long way back (ca. 1938, IIRC). She must have had some idea of what the studio would probably do with it. (And it was planned from the beginning to be a musical.) Why sign them over in the first place if she found that type of treatment so objectionable? There is oone version that postulates she thought she could get the money but also sabotage the film so it never got made, that she thought she has the right to cancel the film. ---
**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 7, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/73 "2018-03-07T16:58:13Z")
Travers said of the film that it was ‘all fantasy and no magic’. I think you could say that about a large number of Hollywood films, Disney as well as other studios, then and now. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/74 "2018-03-07T17:28:12Z")
But I have a very hard time thinking of any other film that has “more magic”, in the sense that she appears to mean, than Disney’s _Mary Poppins_. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/75 "2018-03-07T17:30:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But I have a very hard time thinking of any other film that has “more magic”, in the sense that she appears to mean, than Disney’s _Mary Poppins_. Right. But a author often has a hard time letting go. I think time has shown us that Travers was totally wrong and Walt right. His Mary Poppins is a treat, a joy, and a film for the ages. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/76 "2018-03-08T08:00:55Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > **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? 😉 What ??? I live in a country where they drive on the left side of the road. You look left first (checking the far side of the road), then look right (the near side) just before you step off the kerb/curb. You might look right/left/right [(Hector the cat)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDIy8IjrKw), but you never look right/left. If you look left as you step of the curb, you get wiped out by the car you don’t see. ---
**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 8, 2018, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/77 "2018-03-08T09:36:20Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > What ??? I live in a country where they drive on the left side of the road. > > You look left first (checking the far side of the road), then look right (the near side) just before you step off the kerb/curb. You might look right/left/right [(Hector the cat)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDIy8IjrKw), but you never look right/left. > > If you look left as you step of the curb, you get wiped out by the car you don’t see. I have to disagree with that. I also live in a country that drives on the left, and I walk a lot and often cross both busy and quiet roads. I always look right first because that is the logical and natural thing to do. Even your video says that. If the road is very quiet, or you can see down a long stretch where there is no traffic, you might omit looking right a second time, as in the spy example, but looking right first is natural. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/78 "2018-03-08T11:00:02Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > What ??? I live in a country where they drive on the left side of the road. > > You look left first (checking the far side of the road), then look right (the near side) just before you step off the kerb/curb. You might look right/left/right [(Hector the cat)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDIy8IjrKw), but you never look right/left. > > If you look left as you step of the curb, you get wiped out by the car you don’t see. > [@GreenWyvern](#): > > I have to disagree with that. I also live in a country that drives on the left, and I walk a lot and often cross both busy and quiet roads. I always look right first because that is the logical and natural thing to do. Even your video says that. > > If the road is very quiet, or you can see down a long stretch where there is no traffic, you might omit looking right a second time, as in the spy example, but looking right first is natural. “Look right, look left, and right again” was the Kerb Drill in Britain taught to kids from at least 1945 - maybe earlier. See this[public information film](http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/view/3e60ddd5a4d5439593cc6209e6f376a1) from 1946 (and just listen to the little girls excruciating accent :smack: ) This is the same sequence as the Hector film from Australia. It was finally replaced in 1970 when it was realised kids were using it as a magic incantation and not really thinking about what they saw! ---
**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 8, 2018, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/79 "2018-03-08T12:41:32Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > What ??? I live in a country where they drive on the left side of the road. > > You look left first (checking the far side of the road), then look right (the near side) just before you step off the kerb/curb. You might look right/left/right [(Hector the cat)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDIy8IjrKw), but you never look right/left. > > If you look left as you step of the curb, you get wiped out by the car you don’t see. Why would you check the far side of the road first? 😕 In Canada, I live near an unmarked crossing. Before I step off the curb, I \*always \*look left first, because I could get splattered immediately if I didn’t. The far side of the road, where the traffic comes from my right, I check second. Left, right, then left again. I keep my eye on both until I’m clear. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991/80 "2018-03-09T19:57:41Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Why would you check the far side of the road first? 😕 Because you check the near side last. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-much-was-tuppence-anyway/809991.md?page=5)