104 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vol. 50 



Spanish real, neglecting the half cent, became ninepence and the 

 Spanish medio became fourpence and half-penny. It is worthy of 

 special remark that for the terms penny, fourpence, sixpence, and 

 shilling, which the New England people habitually used, there 

 were no respectively corresponding coins in existence. 



This persistence of the New England people in the use of the 

 terms shillings and pence long after the establishment of our na- 

 tional monetary system is all the more remarkable, because that 

 people had long before abandoned the use of all English coins, be- 

 cause they used those terms whether the coins employed by them 

 were American or Spanish, and because an intense antipathy to 

 England then prevailed among them. Their tendency to adhere to 

 old customs, which has been referred to, made the English speech 

 of my boyhood in Massachusetts decidedly dialectic. This is 

 partially illustrated by the following table, which shows the 

 dialectic pronunciation of the now archaic monetary terms which 

 the New England people habitually used. These terms and their 

 pronunciation pertained to the prevalent serious speech of the peo- 

 ple and were in no way exceptional or frivolous. In view, how- 

 ever, of the present sufficiency of our national coins in circulation 

 bearing appropriate and established names, and of the prevalent 

 correctness of English speech, the present monetary use of any of 

 the archaic terms which have been discussed in the foregoing para- 

 graphs partakes of the nature of slang. 



New England Dialectic Pronunciation of Archaic Monetary Terms 



Monetary terms. 



Dialectic pronun- 

 ciation. 



Cent Cent. 



Half-dime Five cents. 



Dime Ten cents. 



Four pence and half-penny Fo'pnshapny. 



Sixpence Sixp'ns. 



Ninepence Ninep'ns. 



Shilling. . Shillin. 



One shilling and sixpence One'n'six. 



Two shillings Two shillins. 



Two shillings and sixpence. . . . Two'n'six. 



Three shillings Three shillins. 



Three shillings and sixpence ... Three'u'six. 



Four shillings Four shillins. 



Four shillings and sixpence ... ... Four'n'six. 



Five shillings Five shillins. 



Five shillings and sixpence .... Five'n'six. 



Six shillings Six shillins. 



Nine shillings Nine shillins. 



Ten shillings and sixpence i Ten'n'six. 



