All about money
The system of currency in the UK has always been a bit of a mystery for Americans. What’s a pound, a farthing, or a shilling—and what do you do with 50 “quid”? These are important questions to put the references to money in perspective throughout the story of A Christmas Carol.
References to money in the story:
Scrooge: “My clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas.”
Narrator: “…Even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow’s pudding in his garret…”
Scrooge: “If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you’d think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound?”
Ghost of Christmas Past: “Why. Is it not. He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise.”
Narrator: Then up rose Mrs Cratchit, Cratchit’s wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence.
Narrator: Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didn’t care twopence for it.
Narrator: Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full five-and-sixpence weekly.
Joe: “If you asked me for another penny, and made it an open question, I’d repent of being so liberal and knock off half-a-crown.”
Joe: I wouldn’t give another sixpence, if I was to be boiled for not doing it.
Fred: “If it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, that’s something; and I think I shook him yesterday.”
Scrooge: “Come back with the man, and I’ll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five minutes and I’ll give you half-a-crown.”
The UK government under Queen Victoria had only begun recognizing and officially issuing bank notes in 1833—just ten years before Dickens published A Christmas Carol so mainly coins were in use (the pound is the oldest form of currency still currently in use). The basic coins of Victorian England, from highest to lowest, were:
Pound (a sovereign or pound sterling—today’s slang would be a “quid” or a “nicker”)
Crown (4 crowns = 1 pound)
Half-a-crown (8 half-a-crowns = 1 pound)
Shilling (2.5 shillings = 1 half-a-crown or 5 shillings = 1 crown or 20 shillings = 1 pound)
Sixpence (2 sixpence = 1 shilling)
Penny (6 pennies = 1 sixpence or 12 pennies = 1 shilling)
Half-penny (24 half-pennies = 1 shilling)
Farthing (4 farthings = 1 penny or 2 farthings = 1 half-penny)
This was pre-decimalization so things were a bit haphazard. So for a little comparison, if a British Pound was the equivalent of one U.S. dollar, the breakdown for the money used in the story would be:
Half-a-crown – 12.5 cents
Shilling – 5 cents
Sixpence – 2.5 cents
Penny – Approximately half a cent
Farthing – Approximately one-tenth of a cent
So when the story mentions Bob’s salary of 15 shillings a week, you can easily see, even at that time, how measly it was. Mrs. Cratchit must have seriously splurged to buy those ribbons on her dress for sixpence. When A Christmas Carol was first published, it sold for 5 shillings a copy—cheaper than many books of the period, but still quite a luxury.
Get a look at the coins of the Victorian era here: http://www.ukcoinpics.co.uk