Pennant

“ Child was the first banker who gave up the goldsmith's business, and he is called by Pennant 'the father of the profession.' Previous to 1690 the old ledgers of the firm were full of goldsmiths' and pawnbroking accounts mixed up with banking transactions. The sign of the marygold may still be seen in the water-mark of the present cheques, and the original sign is preserved in the front shop over the door which leads into the back premises. It is made of oak, the ground stained green, with a gilt border surrounding a marygold and sun, and the motto 'Ainsi mon ame.' Mr. ”

“ The boy or man who has made up his mind to save pence, and has found an old teapot on the mantelshelf but an insecure custodian, would not like to pass on to the savings bank at one stride. No, the humbler office close by, with an easy, sympathising, domestic air about it, which takes a penny, indeed adopts the very name of this coin, that is the house for him to keep his account at—the best stepping stone to the larger establishments. ”

“ A reference to my original pamphlet—a copy of which is, I presume, still in your Lordships’ possession—or to my evidence before the Select Committee of 1838, appointed to inquire into the practicability of my plans, will show the various steps by which I arrived at the conclusion that a uniform penny rate was at once just and practicable. ”

“ Item, for the great scarcity that is at present within the realm of England of halfpence and farthings of silver, it is ordained and established, that the third part of all the money of silver plate which shall be brought to the bullion, shall be made into halfpence and farthings. This shows that the words halfpence and farthings of lawful money in that statute concerning the passing of pence, is meant a small coin in halfpence and farthings of silver. ”

“ In short, I am myself quite unacquainted with any logic by which it can be maintained that while a newspaper weighing six or eight ounces is conveyed for a halfpenny, a letter weighing but half an ounce should be chargeable with a penny, or, in other words, why the lightest letter should be charged twice as much as the heaviest newspaper. ”

“ One memorable day,--a Wednesday, the black day of my life,--among the sums I so entered was one of five hundred pounds."
"I begin to make it out," said the captain. "Yes?"
"It was one of Clissold's duties to copy from this entry a memorandum of the sums which the clerk employed to go to the bankers' paid in there. It was my duty to hand the money to Clissold; it was Clissold's to hand it to the clerk, with that memorandum of his writing. On that Wednesday I entered a sum of five hundred pounds received. I handed that sum, as I handed the other sums in the day's entry, to Clissold. ”

“ A penny four of such will take;
And to allow I am most willing
That twelve pence always make a shilling;
And that five shillings make a crown,
Twenty a sovereign, the same as pound.
Some have no cash, some have to spare—
Some who have wealth for none will care. ”

“ Shake a sixpence off the forehead.—It is astonishing how even the most acute player may be deceived by this sixpenny imposition. The presiding genius, holding in his fingers a sixpence, proceeds with an air of great importance to fasten the coin upon the forehead of the victim, by means of first wetting it, and then pressing it firmly just above the eyes. As soon as the coin is considered to be firmly fixed, he takes away his hands, and also the coin. ”

“ A penny saved is the seed of pounds saved. And pounds saved mean comfort, plenty, wealth, and independence. But the penny must be earned honestly. It is said that a penny earned honestly is better than a shilling given. A Scotch proverb says, "The gear that is gifted is never sae sweet as the gear that is won." What though the penny be black? "The smith and his penny are both black." But the penny earned by the smith is an honest one. ”

“ Wood will oblige and force you to take five pence halfpenny of his trash in every payment: and many of you receive twenty, thirty, forty payments in one day, or else you can hardly find bread: and pray consider how much that will amount to in a year; twenty times five pence halfpenny is nine shillings and two pence, which is above a hundred and sixty pounds a year, wherein you will be losers of at least one hundred and forty pounds by taking your payments in his money. ”

“ It has been supposed that the people before, and also perhaps after this, used to make halfpence and farthings for themselves, by breaking the penny into halves and quarters, which, it has been said, they were more easily enabled to do from the coin having on one side of it a cross very deeply indented. ”

“ April 8, 1898—"The truth is, we buy only with gold coin, to which alone the name of money ought to be applied. No bank note, treasury note or paper certificate, in any form or by whomsoever issued, is more than an instrument of credit. ”

“ So I just thought of a penny I had in my pocket, and I said to myself, 'Now if I give this penny, mamma will call me a good boy, and then I shall be glad:' and so I gave it to him."—"Now, my dear, this is what you should have said: 'This old man is very poor, and I have a penny to spare that will do him good, and he shall have it.'"—"Ah! ”

“ The absurd rule of charging by the number of enclosures, instead of by weight, often caused great irritation, especially when any one of the enclosures was very diminutive. Thus, in an instance reported to me at the time, a certain letter from London to Wolverhampton, which now would be conveyed for one penny, came charged with a postage of two shillings and sixpence, viz., tenpence for the letter, tenpence for a returned bill of exchange enclosed therein, and tenpence for a small scrap of paper attached to this latter at the notary’s office. ”

“ A penny seems a small sum to talk about, and with many, I am sorry to say, is looked upon as so insignificant as to be considered almost worthless; but I hope, before I have done, to show you something of the great value of even a penny, and of the effects and products we have been enabled to produce and dispose of with a reasonable profit at the cost of one penny. ”

“ A man, his face in shadow from a huge green eye-shade which he wore low on his brow, removed his hand from the electric switch. Taking up a piece of bond paper he felt its texture, and holding it up to the light he examined with minute attention the red and blue silk fiber running through the paper.
Laying down the paper he took out his wallet and drew out some money, and holding [244] the spurious bill and the genuine bank note against the light he compared them closely, then a smile of triumph crossed his tightly compressed lips. ”

“ I tore out the page which contained the numbers of the notes, shut the pocket-book again, and put it back in the same place. I was seated at my own end of the box, watching the clock intently, when he entered—triumphant of course, and with an evening paper in his hand.
"Well, you surprise me," I said. "I could have sworn there was no boy there when I came in. However, it can't be helped. A bet's a bet. Perhaps I'll make another one with you before we've finished."
"I've no objection," said the big man, as he pocketed my sovereign, "supposing that it's anything I care to bet on. ”

“ I gets a bit of lead pencil from one of the lads, turns [76] the children out of the room, spreads out a piece of paper, and sits myself down. Then I says to the wife, “My lass, I never have chastised thee, never; but now thou hast just got to bring me every bill and every pawn-ticket, and thou hast just got to think on, and to tell me of every penny I owe, and if I find thou hast kept aught back, I shall feel fit to take off my belt and to thrash thee with it to within an inch of thy life, and if I have to go to gaol for it, I’ll go.” ”

“ I have known persons to come in without a penny, and declare the Caster, in or out, ten pounds, and losing the bet, would ask for a hundred pounds, would receive it and lose it, and receive in the same way to the amount of six or seven hundred pounds, and then would declare that they would not pay one farthing unless accommodated with another hundred. I have known a man of high rank lose to the amount of fourteen hundred pounds, on account, which, under the circumstances, his lordship had more sense than to pay. ”

“ The successive groups or units thus formed are called denominations. Thus twelve pennies make a shilling, and twenty shillings a pound, while the penny is itself divided into four farthings (or two halfpennies) . ”

“ In England the “mark” was never a coin, but a money of account only, and apparently came into use in the 10th century through the Danes. It first was taken as equal to 100 pennies, but after the Norman Conquest was equal to 160 pennies (20 pennies to the oz.) ”

“ Any pawnbroker—and there's plenty of 'em, I'm sure!—'ud lend you a few pounds on that. Perhaps you've never had occasion to go to a pawnbroker before? No?—well, and I hadn't once upon a time, but I've had to, whether or no, since I came to letting lodgings, and if I'd as good a watch as yours is, I wouldn't go without money in my pocket! If you've money coming in, you can always get your goods back—and I should be thankful for something, Mr. Lauriston, if it was but a couple o' pounds. ”

“ The government accepts no amount under one franc, or about 20 cents in American money. Now, for a boy to carry 20 cents in his pocket is a little rash. If he does not lose his money he will surely spend it. To save him from either unfortunate predicament the school teacher sells him as many penny stamps as he has pennies to purchase them with. ”

“ That we have ordained: that each of us should contribute IV pence for our common use within XII months, and pay for the property which should be taken after we had contributed the money; and that all should have the search in common; and that every man should contribute his shilling who had property to the value of XXX pence, except the poor widow who has no ‘forwyrhta’ nor any land. ”

“ Baker, my friend’s husband, absently feeling in his vest pocket, found a five dollar note which he had no recollection of putting there.
“Hallo!” he exclaimed, “that is no place for you. I should have put you in my pocketbook. Here, wife, don’t you want some ready money?” and he threw the note across the table to her.
“Many thanks,” she replied; “money is always acceptable, although I have no present need of it.” She folded the note and put it under the edge of the tea-tray, and then proceeded to pour out the tea and attend to the wants of her guests. ”

“ One of the footmen had six new pennies: the Lord Mayor always pays his servants’ wages in new pennies. I spent fourpence of that in bread and cheese, that on the table’s the tuppence. Ah, it’s a poor trade! ”

“ Advocate persistently cheap and honest public service. Let one of your mottoes be: “A penny a letter and a penny a mile,” that is, the conviction that a letter ought to be sent anywhere in the United States for a penny, and that a man ought to be able to travel all over the country at the rate of a penny a mile. ”

“ Sixpence—sixpence—sixpence does it!'
It was no sooner known that the Champion was really resolved on business than the entrance to the booth was besieged. I was borne in breathless, all the wind being squeezed out of my small body by the pressure of the crowd, and bang went sixpence, the one coin which was to see me through the expenses of the day. ”

“ He is merely the penny put into the slot in order that the figures may work, and any other man, or any other penny, that fulfilled the requisite conditions might be expected to produce the same results. ”

“ To speak critically, I never received more than one or two letters in my life -- I wrote this some years ago -- that were worth the postage. The penny-post is, commonly, an institution through which you seriously offer a man that penny for his thoughts which is so often safely offered in jest. ”

“ Shilling and Sixpence, the words ONE SHILLING, and SIXPENCE, within the wreath of laurel and oak, beneath which is the date. Fourpence, FOUR PENCE. Threepence, figure 3 crowned.
The most beautiful of our modern coins is a Crown-piece struck in 1847, from dies engraved by Wyon. It is in somewhat low relief, and bears on the obverse an exquisite profile portrait of the queen, to the left, filling up the entire diameter of the coin. Her Majesty wears an open four-arched crown; the hair, being plaited, is brought down below the ear, and fastened at the back of the head ”

“ I am going to ask Miss Meakin to hand all these cheques and postal orders to me, as a free gift, to be my very own, to be sent to my bank and placed to my private account.’ (Mild sensation.) ‘In return, I shall write a cheque for one hundred pounds, and shall present it to myself, as Treasurer, for the use of the Society. ”

“ The clerk of the treasurer who is below, has five pence a day. The scribe of the same treasurer in the upper exchequer has likewise five. The scribe of the chancellor, five. The two knights who bear the keys have each eight, by reason of their knighthood. For they claim that they are bound to be ready with the necessary horses and weapons, so that when they are sent with the treasure they may thus more readily execute what pertains to their office. The knight-silverer has twelve pence a day. The melter, five. ”

“ The penny is a handsome piece of money, though of uncomfortable weight, being exactly an English ounce; so that in receiving change you have frequently a quarter of a pound of copper to carry in your pocket:—the legend is indented on a raised rim ”