About Money
Published by Rick on Thursday, September 30, 2010.£20 = score
£25 = pony
£50 = bull’s eye
£100 = ton
£500 = monkey
£1,000 = gorilla or grand
£25 = pony
£50 = bull’s eye
£100 = ton
£500 = monkey
£1,000 = gorilla or grand
All sorts of things, places and creatures that we believed would last for ever, have vanished – trams, tosheroons* and Constantinople.
From The Daily Mirror 18 February 1979.
*tosheroon = half a crown coin = 2/6 = 12½pence.
“’Ere, Dad, bung us a pony.”
Conversation overheard some years ago by the Editor between an 11 year old inner-city girl and her doting father. At the time the Editor thought it was a request for a small horse, but now thinks it may have been a demand for that week’s pocket money.
British coins have always had a series of traditional inscriptions, or legends, upon them, either surrounding the monarch’s head or on the obverse.
The present legend is: ELIZABETH II D.G. REG F.D.
ELIZABETH II, of course, refers to Her Majesty, the Queen.
D.G. stands for Dei Gratia, By the Grace of God.
REG is an abbreviation of Regina, Queen. (A king will have REX.)
F.D. stands for Fidei Defensor, Defender of the Faith. Henry VIII had originally been a very devout Catholic and had written a book, The Defence of the Seven Sacraments to counter the accusations of heresy against the Catholic Church by Martin Luther. For this Pope Leo X bestowed on Henry the title of Fidei Defensor. The English church eventually broke away from Rome, partly in an attempt to counter false doctrines and malpractices, and so considered itself to be the true church. Consequently, Henry VIII continued with the title.
The legends have changed over the years. For example, the legend on a 1918 penny was: GEORGIUS V DEI GRA BRITT OMN REX FID DEF IND IMP.
GEORGIUS V refers to the monarch at the time, George V.
DEI GRA stands for Dei Gratia, By the Grace of God.
BRITT OMN stands for Britanniarum Omnium, King of all the Britons.
REX proclaims him King.
FID DEF again proclaims him Fidei Defensor, Defender of the Faith.
IND IMP stands for Indiae Imperator, Emperor of India.
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