Association of British Scrabble Players

Society > Money > British Money


Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.


angel a former gold coin with the head of the archangel Michael on it, first minted in Edward IV's reign; (verb) to support financially > ANGELED, ANGELING.
baubee bawbee a halfpenny.
bob a pre-decimal shilling.
bodle boddle a 17th century Scots copper coin.
broadpiece an old English gold coin, broader than a guinea, such as a CAROLUS.
carolus a former English gold coin, first struck in the reign of Charles I > CAROLUSES or CAROLI.
copper a pre-decimal penny; (verb) to coat with copper.
couter (old slang) a sovereign.
crown in pre-decimal coinage, a coin worth five SHILLINGS.
dandiprat dandyprat a silver three-halfpenny piece.
deaner a shilling. [L. denarius].
eightpence a coin worth eight pence.
eightpenny worth eight pennies. N.B. this is an adjective.
farden farding a FARTHING. FARDING exists in OSPD, but only as the participle of FARD, to apply cosmetics, so FARDINGS is #.
farthing a quarter of a pre-decimal penny.
fippence fivepence, a coin worth five pence > FIPPENCES.
fivepence a coin worth 5 pence > FIVEPENCES.
fivepenny worth five pence. N.B. this is an adjective.
fiver a five-pound note.
florence an ancient gold coin of the time of Edward III, of six shillings sterling value.
florin a pre-decimal coin worth two shillings.
fourpence four pre-decimal pennies.
fourpenny a coin worth four pence. N.B. this can be a noun so FOURPENNIES is OK, like, say TWOPENNIES, THREEPENNIES, SEVENPENNIES, NINEPENNIES and SIXPENNIES but unlike FIVEPENNIES*, EIGHTPENNIES* and TENPENNIES*. I have no idea why we have an inconsistent pattern here.
grand a thousand pounds sterling.
greenie a pound-note. Also GREENY.
greeny a pound-note. Also GREENIE. (Adj.) somewhat green > GREENIER, GREENIEST.
groat a 4-pence piece from 1300's to 1600's.
guinea in pre-decimal money, twenty-one shillings (one pound and one shilling).
halflin halfling half a Scottish silver penny.
halfpenny a coin worth half a pre-decimal penny > HALFPENCE or HALFPENNIES.
jacobus an English gold coin, struck in the reign of James I > JACOBUSES.
joey an old threepenny bit. They were small and silver and used to be put in Christmas puddings, in the days when parents had a lot of children and didn't mind losing a few by choking to death.
mail maile a halfpenny.
mancus an Anglo-Saxon monetary unit of the value of thirty pence > MANCUSES.
mark a former monetary unit and coin in England and Scotland worth two thirds of a pound sterling; also a unit of currency in Germany etc.
mawpus mopus a small coin.
meg a pre-decimal halfpenny. Penny whistles were once called megs, because they were sold for a halfpenny.
merk an old Scotch silver coin.
monkey five hundred pounds sterling.
moy (Shakespeare) not really a coin, but a misunderstanding of French moi as the name of a coin.
nicker a pound sterling.
ninepence nine pennies > NINEPENCES.
ninepenny a coin worth nine pence > NINEPENNIES.
noble an obsolete gold coin worth approximately one pound sterling.
oncer a one-pound note.
patrick a 17C Irish halfpenny.
paul paolo an obsolete silver coin.
pence pl. of old pre-decimal penny, also has become a singular for a new penny, with pl. PENCES (ouch!).
peni penie (Spenser) a penny.
penny in pre-decimal coinage, 1/240 of a pound > PENNIES or PENCE.
pistole any of numerous old gold coins of varying value, e.g. a Spanish coin of the 17th century worth about 17 contemporary English shillings, or a Scots 12-pound piece of William III worth one contemporary English pound.
plack a small copper coin formerly current in Scotland.
pony (slang) twenty-five pounds sterling.
quid (slang) a pound sterling.
rial ryal an old English gold coin worth about ten shillings.
sceat sceatt a small silver or gold coin of Anglo-Saxon times > SCEATS, SCEATTS or (in both cases) SCEATTAS.
sevenpence a coin worth seven pence > SEVENPENCES.
sevenpenny a coin worth seven pennies > SEVENPENNIES.
shilling in pre-decimal coinage, one-twentieth of a pound sterling.
shiner (coll.) a sovereign.
sixpence a coin worth six pence > SIXPENCES.
sixpenny a coin worth six pence > SIXPENNIES.
solidare (Shakespeare) a small coin.
sov a SOVEREIGN.
sovereign in pre-decimal coinage, a coin worth one pound sterling.
sterling an English penny of the Norman and subsequent dynasties.
tanner in pre-decimal coinage, a sixpence.
tenner a ten-pound note.
tenpence a coin worth ten pence > TENPENCES.
tenpenny worth or costing tenpence or ten (new) pence. This is an adjective only: there is no form TENPENNIES*.
teston a name for various silver coins, originally bearing a king's or duke's head; a Henry VIII shilling; later a sixpence.
tester testern a sixpence; testern can be used as a verb, to present or reward with a sixpence.
testril testrill a sixpence.
threepence a coin worth three pence > THREEPENCES.
threepenny a coin worth three pennies > THREEPENNIES.
thrimsa thrymsa an Anglo-Saxon gold coin.
thrip in pre-decimal coinage, a threepennny bit. The plural THRIPS is also a singular in its own right, meaning a kind of insect, with plural THRIPSES.
thruppence threepence > THRUPPENCES.
thruppenny thrupenny threepence, as in THRUPPENNY bit > THRUPPENNIES, THRUPENNIES.
tizzy a sixpence.
traybit treybit a threepenny bit.
tuppence a coin worth two pence > TUPPENCES.
tuppenny two pennies > TUPPENNIES.
twalpenny an old shilling > TWALPENNIES.
twopence a coin worth two pence > TWOPENCES.
twopenny a coin worth two pennies > TWOPENNIES.
unicorn an old Scottish gold coin bearing a unicorn, worth 18 shillings.
winn a penny.