English Slang Money

[Kev]

money used in britain over the years but whats the really name for them these are nick names or slang  -----------

1  tester/teaster/teston/testone/testoon--------------??
2  thick'un/thick one ------------- ??
3  two and a kick----------------??

[rjm]

1.  sixpence

2.   5/- (five shillings)

3.   2/6  (half crown)

[Kev]

no 1 and no 2 are wrong Bob 



no 3 is correct.................... two and a kick - half a crown (2/6), from the early 1700s, based on the basic (not cockney) rhyming with 'two and six'

[Chef Geoff]

A testoon is a shilling but not sure on the thick'un

[rjm]

no 1 and no 2 are wrong Bob 



no 3 is correct.................... two and a kick - half a crown (2/6), from the early 1700s, based on the basic (not cockney) rhyming with 'two and six'

Shouldn't be wrong. I checked. Where did you get your answers 

[Chef Geoff]

I just checked Too, the Thick'un is a Sovereign.

[rjm]

I just checked Too, the Thick'un is a Sovereign.

5/-  is a crown.

I don't know where Kev got his questions and answers but I'm dubious especially as your checked
answer varies as well !   

[Chef Geoff]

AH! It seems we both could be right.
"Thick 'un, and Thin 'un, are slang
English terms used respectively for the
Sovereign and Crown and the correspond-
ing halves"

[rjm]

AH! It seems we both could be right.
"Thick 'un, and Thin 'un, are slang
English terms used respectively for the
Sovereign and Crown and the correspond-
ing halves"

How could we both be wrong...................brilliant minds! 

[Kev]

tester/teaster/teston/testone/testoon - sixpence (6d) - from the late 1500s up to the 1920s. Rare since then. A teston was originally a French silver coin, struck at Milan by (for) the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Mario (Maria) Sforza (1468-76), bearing his head. Teston is derived from Latin testa, meaning head. Later (mid-1500s) the word teston was applied to other Italian and French coinage. In England the name teston (also testoon*) was first used for the Henry VII (reigned 1485-1509) shilling, the first English coin to carry a true portrait. The term continued for equivalent coins of Henry VII and Edward VI, during which time the coin reduced in value from twelve pence to six pence and lower (values were less fixed then than now). By the late 1500s the distorted slang term tester (alongside variations above) had developed, coinciding with the coin's depreciation and debasing of the metal, so that tester became specific slang for a sixpennny piece. Interestingly the slang word tester was also later adopted (notably in Australian slang, mid-1800s to 1940s) to mean twenty-five strokes of the lash. Other coin slang words were similarly adopted (mid 1800s) equating to different levels of punishment, associated with maritime service, deportation and prison, such as bob (a shilling - 50 strokes), bull (five shillings - 75 strokes), canary (a guinea or sovereign - 100 strokes). The number of strokes did not match the coin denominations, but there is an obvious rising scale of violence correlation between relative values. The word tester (just sixpence, and just 25 strokes) no doubt appealed because of its additional ironic meaning in this context. It is tempting to imagine a connection between this sense of entry-level physical punishment and the 1900s slang 'a sixpenny one' meaning a single punch in the face or around the ear, often following a warning to dispense such retribution. (Sources mainly OEDs and Cassells. Thanks J Dodgson.)
* The 'oon' ending of testoon was a common suffix for French words adapted into English, such as balloon, buffoon, spitoon, dragoon, cartoon.

thick'un/thick one - a crown (5/-) or a sovereign, from the mid 1800s.

two and a kick - half a crown (2/6), from the early 1700s, based on the basic (not cockney) rhyming with 'two and six'.

[Chef Geoff]

So everybody was right, a sort of multiple choice answer and no matter which one you choose your right.

[Kev]

yes everyone was right
a few more then....................
1 bice/byce......................
2 bull ..........................
3 canary...................................
                             

[Chef Geoff]

Without looking them up I have to put my hands up and say I haven't got a clue

[Kev]

clues.............................
 BICE / BYCE .................... older than the 1900s
 BULL ............................. Late 1700s to 1910s
 CANARY ........................slang from the mid-1800s to 1900s

[Kev]

answers--------------------

BICE / BYCE .................... two shillings (2/-) or two pounds or twenty pounds - probably from the French bis, meaning twice, which suggests usage is older than the 1900s first recorded and referenced by dictionary sources. Bice could also occur in conjunction with other shilling slang, where the word bice assumes the meaning 'two', as in 'a bice of deaners', pronounced 'bicerdeaners', and with other money slang, for example bice of tenners, pronounced 'bicertenners', meaning twenty pounds.





BULL .............................five shillings (5/-), a crown, equal to 25p. From the late 1700s to 1910s. A shortening of bull's eye. After about 1910 'a bull' more commonly referred to a counterfeit coin. Separately 'bull money' was slang from the late 1800s meaning money handed to a blackmailer, or a bribe given in return for silence.

CANARY ........................ a guinea or sovereign or other gold coin, slang from the mid-1800s to 1900s, derived purely by association of the yellow/gold colours. Also, late 1800s, a half sovereign.