British coins and slang

[brian.ae.meekings]

This puzzle is probably only worth attempting if you're a Brit over
the age of 35, since it requires a knowledge of pre-decimalization
(sorry - pre-decimalisation) coinage and British slang.

Make the following add up to 31 pounds 15 shillings and 2 pence:

A mode of transport
Portion of royal head-dress
A pig
Leatherworker
Venus, Mars and Jupiter
Portion of ladies underwear
Up and down
Unwell marine animal
A stone
A singer

Solution in a while.

Brian Meekings
ba...@mink.att.com

[Merlyn LeRoy]

ba...@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (brian.ae.meekings) writes:
>This puzzle is probably only worth attempting if you're a Brit over
>the age of 35, since it requires a knowledge of pre-decimalization
>(sorry - pre-decimalisation) coinage and British slang.

I'm not, so I only got two.

>Make the following add up to 31 pounds 15 shillings and 2 pence:

> A mode of transport
pennyfarthing (bicycle)
...
> A stone
14 pounds

Hey, almost half!

---
Merlyn LeRoy

[David D Stretch]

My solution follows, so skip if you are still trying to solve it...

>Make the following add up to 31 pounds 15 shillings and 2 pence:
>
> A mode of transport

A Penny Farthing (one and a quarter pence).

> Portion of royal head-dress

Half a Crown? ( 2/6 or 2 shillings and sixpence - a larger coin
than a 2 shilling piece, which was known as a florin)

> A pig

A guinea (as in guinea pig). Was one pound and one shilling, or
21 shillings.

> Leatherworker

Tanner (6d, or a sixpenny piece)

> Venus, Mars and Jupiter

I cheated. This must be 3 farthings, but I will be intrigued how
this ties in with the clue. I was only 8 when farthings changed
from being legal tender, though.

> Portion of ladies underwear

The portion bit stumped me for a while. I reckon its
"Half a knicker" (ten shillings 10/-, used to be a nice brown
note).

> Up and down

Bob. (One shilling, usually the shilling piece, from which the old
5p piece was born)

> Unwell marine animal

A terrible pun, used by myself on occasion: Sick Squid (6 quid,
where quid is a slang term meaning a pound sterling)

> A stone

14 pounds. (Imperial weight measure)

> A singer

A tenor - A tenner (ten pound note).

So, in the order of occurrence, we have:

pounds shillings pence
0 0 1 1/4 Penny Farthing
0 2 6 Half a Crown
1 1 0 Guinea
0 0 6 Tanner
0 0 3/4 (3 farthings?)
0 10 0 Half a knicker
0 1 0 Bob
6 0 0 Sick squid (sic! 8-) ) 6 quid.
14 0 0 14 pounds (one stone)
10 0 0 Tenor (Tenner)
--------------------------------
Total 31 15 2

Don't you just love doing arithmetic when each place is operating to a
different base!

--
David D Stretch: Flat 2, 4a Prebend Street, Leicester LE2 0LA
da...@mugwort.demon.co.uk
d...@leicester.ac.uk (Dept. of Psychiatry, Univ. of Leicester)

[David D Stretch]

(Repeat posting - I think my previous attempt was fouled up....)

My solution follows, so skip if you are still trying to solve it...

>Make the following add up to 31 pounds 15 shillings and 2 pence:
>
> A mode of transport

A Penny Farthing (one and a quarter pence).

[David D Stretch]

Aha! I have it now....
Earlier I wrote:

>> Venus, Mars and Jupiter
>
> I cheated. This must be 3 farthings, but I will be intrigued how
> this ties in with the clue. I was only 8 when farthings changed
> from being legal tender, though.

Venus, Mars and Jupiter are all planets, and so, they are far away from
Earth. So, they must be THREE FAR THINGS!

Dave