Quarter-Shillings In Britain - Did I Miss The Memo On This?

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On the same thought..I recently noticed a description of a Victoria 1 1/2 pence a tiny silver coin and it was called a 'three half pence'
If they covered that on the same day I must have out with covid or something lol

Or maybe its correct?

While 3 pence is indeed a quarter of a shilling, nobody (outside of Jersey) ever called them "one-fourth-of-a-shilling". I'm happy to declare Hertiage is flat-out wrong here.


In this case, "three-halfpence" is correct; this what these coins were actually called. Wikipedia. "Half-threepence" was rarer but logically equivalent. I don't think anybody forced to use the coins called them "one-and-a-half-pence". According to Wikipedia, the Jamaicans (who were forced to use them) called them a "quatty", short for "quarter-sixpence". Apparently, the locals on Jamaica had developed some kind of taboo against accepting copper and bronze coins, which is why they had to resort to using these tiny silver coins as small change. When Britain eventually made pennies and halfpennies specifically for use on Jamaica, they made them out of cupronickel and later brass.

My best guesses...

1) they call it a 1/4 shilling for the benefit of modern folks who don't know how many pence there are in a shilling [and/or might have otherwise believed that 3d = £0.03]
2) they call it a 1/4 shilling to represent that it's functionally 1/4 of a silver shilling instead of a theoretical* (presumably bronze) triple penny

Either of those would be a reasonable line of thought, but either would also imply that they are prepared to ignore accepted terminology. I'd be surprised if anyone really called a 3d a 1/4 shilling - outside Jersey anyway.
(Kind of a pity they apparently never made a 24 doubles coin for Guernsey.)
[EDIT: apparently there were Guernsey 3d coins but they were in fact labelled "three pence".]


*) Birmigham Workhouse had actually issued a bronze token of three pence (and a very rare six pence version of twice the thickness) back in 1813. As expected, they were extremely large.

january1may, your Guess #2 is fabulous...and suggests that (perhaps unwittingly) Heritage is bringing us right over to the epistemology of money by asking "How do we *know* this stuff in our pockets?"

To expand just a little here, Heritage of course understands that the value of a little silver coin would be better appreciated if expressed in terms of another silver coin. That makes much more sense than linking it to those less worthy, less valuable, copper coins! Bidding should go higher, too!

Also consistent with your Guess #2, I suppose, is the idea that Heritage may be trying to nudge us toward subliminally recognizing the connection between their new nomenclature and the fact of the "pound sterling" as Britain's overall monetary standard?

I love it! More coffee, please.

Quote:
*) Birmingham Workhouse had actually issued a bronze token of three pence (and a very rare six pence version of twice the thickness) back in 1813. As expected, they were extremely large.

january1may, for a bit more recent exposition and illustration on these very tokens (from my collection), visit this CCF thread from a year ago this week: http://goccf.com/t/436779

Here's the teaser:

Wow! These youngsters! What a lot they still have to learn!

I don't live in the UK so am curious - is reckoning in pounds, shillings and pence still taught at school? Would a young person having just entered the workforce have the notion of how many pence to a shilling, or shillings to a pound, or has that gone away?

Decimal Day will have been 53 years ago next year, I think, but please correct me if that's not the case.

I used to think it a bit difficult myself not having grown up with it but then I got into German States coinage and gained a healthy respect for the relative simplicity of reckoning in £/s/d.