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half-crown
a. A coin (latterly silver) of Great Britain, of the value of two shillings and sixpence; sometimes used for the equivalent sum, which is regularly expressed by half-a-crown. (From 1970 no longer legal tender.)
1542Boorde Introd. Knowl. i. (1870) 121 The crownes and the halfe crownes..be not so fyne Golde. 1562Turner Herbal ii. 109 b, There is not past an halfe crowne lost. 1692Wagstaffe Vind. Carol. xvii. 109 Thirty single Pence with us make a Half-Crown. 1841E. Hawkins Silver Coins Eng. 142 In 1551 commenced the circulation of crowns, half-crowns, shillings, sixpences, and threepences. 1884R. L. Kenyon Gold Coins Eng. 92 Henry VIII..Second Coinage..Half Crowns Value 2s. 6d...Obv. like the reverse of the crowns. Rev. like the obverse of the crowns.
1580Lupton Sivqila 27 [They] will not sticke to spende halfe a crowne. 1623Vox Graculi in Hone Every-day Bk. (1825) I. 54 Half-a-crown's worth of two-penny pasties. 1717Berkeley Tour in Italy Wks. 1871 IV. 560 A..mark as large as half-a-crown. 1851Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 155 Half-a-crown each you may lay out for them.
b. attrib.
1620Middleton Chaste Maid i. i, Has no attorney's clerk..chang'd his half-crown-piece? 1714Mandeville Fab. Bees (1725) I. 347 A man, who keeps an half-crown or twelve-penny ordinary. 1800H. Wells C. Neville I. 165 [To] sit down to half-crown whist with antiquated spinsters.
Hence half-crowner, a person who pays a half-crown for a seat at a performance, etc.; a publication costing a half-crown.
1886H. Baumann Londinismen 71/2 Half-crowner. 1890G. B. Shaw London Music 1888–89 (1938) 288 The half-crowners energetically cried ‘Hear, hear’. 1893Farmer & Henley Slang III. 250/1 Half-crowner, a publication costing 2s. 6d. 1959New Statesman 25 July 106/2 One can watch the half-crowners filing..before the country-house displays of things properly designed and well made. |