Daily Mail Question

[Emperor Oli]

A Q&A in the Daily Mail today:

Question: We used to have slang words for all our predecimal currency. Are there any for the money we still use today?

Answer: Though the slang names for predecimal currency such as the bob, tanner, Tilbury and Oxford are evocative of a bygone era, many slang terms are applied to today’s currency.

Loose change in general is known as shrapnel, pence becomes pee and small coinage is known as coppers; 20p pieces are called edge pences and 50p pieces are called spanners (hence the joke: Why does a 50p piece have flat sides? So you can use a spanner to get ‘em out of an Aberdonian’s hand). The pound coin is known as a quid, which may come from quid pro quo, an equivalent amount for something, or could come from the Gaelic-speaking Irishmen in the British Army who would refer to “my money†as mo chuid – chuid being an omnibus Gaelic word for “thingâ€, “pieceâ€, “possessionâ€, “collectionâ€, “money†(as in this case) – or even “a bout of sexual intercourseâ€.

A pound coin can also be known as a Huckleberry Hound (pound), squid nicker (or an Alan Whicker) or a Maggie (after Margaret Thatcher, who introduced the coin) because “it’s brassy, two-faced and thinks it’s a sovereignâ€.

Slang terms for larger amounts of money abound. Examples include monkey (£500), nifty (£50), a bullseye (£50), a pony (£25), deep sea diver (a fiver), Ayrton Senna (tenner), a mother hen (£10), Pavarotti (£10), McGiver (fiver).

-Olivia Pemberton, Aberdeen

[Peter]

Common slang for a £1 coin is nugget and 50p is half a bar...well it used to be whilst playing Brag down the pub.

We had a strict no shrapnel rule and woe betide anyone who tried to use it.

[Sylvester]

I don't use any of those nicknames.

Quid is as far as i go, i haven't heard of most of the others. I was always wondering what a Monkey was!

I like the Maggie for the pound.

[krasnaya_vityaz]

I have heard naughtier versions of the "Maggie"

[Master Jmd]

I thought that a pony was £20 .

“a bout of sexual intercourseâ€...its worrying what some people come up with!