During one active weekend we decided to eat in Camden. As we were enjoying the vegetarian chinese cuisine of a reasonable price and unlimited amounts, somebody came across a six pence coin. How curious is that! It is just slightly bigger than the teeny tiny five pence coin so I suspect that it is generally taken as a five pence.
Six pence, also known as tanner or half-shilling, was used in a pre-decimal system, along with florin (2 shillings) and shilling (12 pence), (the name of half-shilling becomes pretty clear now, doesn't it?). The first sixpences were struck in the reign of Edward VI in 1551 and continued until they were supposed to be demonetized upon decimalisation in 1971. However, they remained legal tender until 30 June 1980.
Some interesting traditions related to the tanner:
-Put in a Christmas pudding (the one to find it in his piece is lucky/will be wealthy/etc)
-Lucky charm for brides. There is an old rhyme which goes "Something old, something new / Something borrowed, something blue / And a sixpence for her (left) shoe."
-a good luck charm by Royal Air Force Aircrew who have them sewn behind their wings or brevets, dating back to the Second World War.
-can be found in that time's plays, songs, etc.
So that's the story for today! Going to Birmingham for the weekend, curious how is it gonna be!
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