NESSAholics.com
Other Topics => Completely Off-Topic => Topic started by: zurielshimon on April 29, 2005, 05:33:42 am
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Over the past several weeks, thanks to both my uncle who was flown to London to inspect a machine for his company and to TRINIST who sent me some to cover the postage for his Nashville concert CDs, I have a small collection of of British coins, and I know the British are known for their slang names for everything, so I'm wondering what are common names for the circulating coins in the U.K., other than just 10p, 20p, &c, like, I know the half-pound coin (50 pence) replaced a tenbob note, and the 5p coin is the equivalent of the shilling; the one I'm most interested in is the 20p because I don't know what to call it - 20p seems so awkward, and it's certainly not a quarter - so other than the seemingly logical "fourbob", does it have a common name?
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1 pee,
2 pee,
5 pee,
10pee,
20pee,
50pee,
1 pound
2 pound
and the ever so rare
5 pound coin.
And no one here alive would remember the old currency...that I know of.
and we don't really have slang for coins we might some times say
20 pence piece or just 20 pee. or for like £1.50 you could just say one fifty.
Deja Vu. (http://forums.nessaholics.com/viewtopic.php?t=7270)
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oh I remember £500 is a monkey and £1000 is a grand...£2000 is 2 grand...x is x grand.
*slaps head* £5 is a fiver and £10 is a tenner and wait ur thinking £20 is a twentier pfft NO!!!
oh and we use quid as in 50 quid. But this is just money not necessarily coins.
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yeah, we don't say stuff like 'quarters' or whatever- its just 20p. Or 50p. Its either a pound or a quid. A tenner. A fiver. None of the others change much.
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yeah, we don't say stuff like 'quarters' or whatever- its just 20p. Or 50p. Its either a pound or a quid. A tenner. A fiver. None of the others change much.
yeah...can I haav a half pound please...[/americanaccent]
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I'm familiar with "quid", and "fiver" and "tenner" are encountered occasionally in the States. I'm also familiar with phraseology like "six pounds, twenty" for £6.20. In America, the coin officially called "half dollar" is often called "fifty-cent piece", especially by older or rural speakers. But I implore you, why is there no cute little name for the 20p piece? How about rose-crown or quintuplet? Call it pobblebonk for all I care! I like it, even if I believe it's non-conformist to have a coin for 0.20 instead of 0.25.
(http://www.24carat.co.uk/images/1982twentypencesilverpiedfortproofobv240.jpg)(http://www.24carat.co.uk/images/1982twentypencesilverpiedfortproofrev240.jpg)
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why? because we have lived this long without calling it anything but a 20p so I doubt we are gonna start now...
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I like it, even if I believe it's non-conformist to have a coin for 0.20 instead of 0.25.
The list of conformists includes the 20 below. At least 21 of the world's 193
countries have currency featuring 25¢ :wink: What are the other 89% doing :?
Argentina
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Brazil
Canada
Cayman Islands
Costa Rica
Denmark
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Guyana
Indonesia
Jamaica
Liberia
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
Panama
Seychelles
Trinidad & Tobago
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But I implore you, why is there no cute little name for the 20p piece? How about rose-crown or quintuplet? Call it pobblebonk for all I care!
All those names are long and inconvenient (not to mention embarrasingly bad). It doesn't get any easier than just saying 20p, so that's what we do. We're lazy.
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From this, I can make one of two conclusions: Either the process of slang naming is a very slow one in Britain, or the tradition is dying out. I'll ask again in ten years to be sure. Maybe it's just this generation showing its rebellion.