Anyone Remember These?
Jul 14th 2022, 4:01 pm
#1
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Anyone Remember These?
I was cleaning up my curio shelves today and washed a miniature piggy bank I've had since I was a child. Out fell three tiny silver thruppenny bits, which I'd totally forgotten about. One used to be put in the Christmas pudding and the person who found it had good luck for a year (the good luck probably being that they didn't choke on it!). Silver sixpences were used when the thruppenny bits ran out. Here they are: from 1932, 1935, and a Victoria coin that appears to be from 1878.
Jul 14th 2022, 4:27 pm
#3
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Jul 14th 2022, 4:29 pm
#4
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Jul 14th 2022, 4:54 pm
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Re: Anyone Remember These?
I remember silver sixpences, not least because as a small child, after I aged-out of the free school milk program I had to take 6d to buy 1/3pt of milk at school. 
But I don't remember silver 3d coins - there were some brass 3d dodecahedron coins floating around at home when I was very small, but they would have already been out of circulation by the time I saw them. I think I still have some somewhere in a jar of old and foreign coins.
I must admit I do enjoy telling any Americans, if the subject of imperial measurements ever strays in the direction of currency being "always" decimal, that the UK used to have a 2½p coin!
You must have been poor, I am fairly sure that putting silver sixpences in the Christmas pudding was the usual tradition. 
But I don't remember silver 3d coins - there were some brass 3d dodecahedron coins floating around at home when I was very small, but they would have already been out of circulation by the time I saw them. I think I still have some somewhere in a jar of old and foreign coins.I must admit I do enjoy telling any Americans, if the subject of imperial measurements ever strays in the direction of currency being "always" decimal, that the UK used to have a 2½p coin!
Last edited by Pulaski; Jul 14th 2022 at 4:56 pm.
Jul 14th 2022, 5:22 pm
#6
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Re: Anyone Remember These?
No, the thruppeny bits pre-dated the sixpences. The sixpences started to be used when the thruppenny bits went out of circulation and were no longer available. And then of course they disappeared, too. What goes in the pudding these days?!
Jul 14th 2022, 5:41 pm
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Re: Anyone Remember These?
I remember silver sixpences, not least because as a small child, after I aged-out of the free school milk program I had to take 6d to buy 1/3pt of milk at school. But I don't remember silver 3d coins - there were some brass 3d dodecahedron coins floating around at home when I was very small, but they would have already been out of circulation by the time I saw them. I think I still have some somewhere in a jar of old and foreign coins.
I must admit I do enjoy telling any Americans, if the subject of imperial measurements ever strays in the direction of currency being "always" decimal, that the UK used to have a 2½p coin!
You must have been poor, I am fairly sure that putting silver sixpences in the Christmas pudding was the usual tradition.
But I don't remember silver 3d coins - there were some brass 3d dodecahedron coins floating around at home when I was very small, but they would have already been out of circulation by the time I saw them. I think I still have some somewhere in a jar of old and foreign coins.I must admit I do enjoy telling any Americans, if the subject of imperial measurements ever strays in the direction of currency being "always" decimal, that the UK used to have a 2½p coin!
You must have been poor, I am fairly sure that putting silver sixpences in the Christmas pudding was the usual tradition.
Jul 14th 2022, 5:53 pm
#8
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Re: Anyone Remember These?
But my post wasn't about the coins in the pictures, it was about the "usual tradition". The Royal Mint certainly thinks it was/ is a sixpence that goes into a Christmas pudding and makes no mention of a threepence alternative.
I even Googled <threepence tradition> and it pretty much turns up a blank, finding a Wikipedia page on the threepenny bit, which makes no mention of "tradition", and then a series of hits most of which seem to relate to traditions surrounding the sixpence, and none as far as I could see, for the threepence.
Last edited by Pulaski; Jul 14th 2022 at 6:05 pm.
Jul 14th 2022, 6:48 pm
#9
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Re: Anyone Remember These?
Yes, I can see they're threepenny bits. But my post wasn't about the coins in the pictures, it was about the "usual tradition".
The Royal Mint certainly thinks it was/ is a sixpence that goes into a Christmas pudding and makes no mention of a threepence alternative.
I even Googled <threepence tradition> and it pretty much turns up a blank, finding a Wikipedia page on the threepenny bit, which makes no mention of "tradition", and then a series of hits most of which seem to relate to traditions surrounding the sixpence, and none as far as I could see, for the threepence.
But my post wasn't about the coins in the pictures, it was about the "usual tradition". The Royal Mint certainly thinks it was/ is a sixpence that goes into a Christmas pudding and makes no mention of a threepence alternative.
I even Googled <threepence tradition> and it pretty much turns up a blank, finding a Wikipedia page on the threepenny bit, which makes no mention of "tradition", and then a series of hits most of which seem to relate to traditions surrounding the sixpence, and none as far as I could see, for the threepence.
The first coins used were silver farthings or pennies. After World War One, it became a threepenny bit and then a sixpence.
Today we use a five pence piece, but it’s courteous to warn people it’s in there before they tuck in, or they may break a tooth!
https://www.rumwellfarmshop.com/the-...stmas-pudding/
And another:
https://coincraft.com/5-silver-three...istmas-pudding
Last edited by Nutmegger; Jul 14th 2022 at 6:50 pm.
Jul 14th 2022, 7:30 pm
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Jul 14th 2022, 7:44 pm
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Jul 14th 2022, 7:49 pm
#12
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Re: Anyone Remember These?
To this day, coins in the UK can be "counted" by weighing them, so coins such as 1p and 2p have the same value per unit weight, as do 5p and 10p, and I think 20p and 50p, and then the pound coins certainly do. ..... Now don't get me started about nickels and dimes in the US!
Jul 14th 2022, 7:53 pm
#13
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Re: Anyone Remember These?
I didn't really like Christmas Pud as a child but I took my portion for the chance of a cash windfall that was worth half as much as a tooth under the pillow.
Jul 14th 2022, 8:12 pm
#14
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Re: Anyone Remember These?
I've just taken a knife to my full-size piggy bank (yes, I dragged some really strange stuff across the Atlantic!) and there were three brass ones in there. Along with six big old pennies (two of them from 1918), a sixpence, and another silver thruppenny bit, also 1918.
Jul 14th 2022, 8:30 pm
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Re: Anyone Remember These?
I've just taken a knife to my full-size piggy bank (yes, I dragged some really strange stuff across the Atlantic!) and there were three brass ones in there. Along with six big old pennies (two of them from 1918), a sixpence, and another silver thruppenny bit, also 1918.