old money

[ste v]

why was half a crown also known as half a dollar ???

[woofgang]

here's what good old wikipedia says

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler

[Famous5]

I understood from my dad that the term came from the days of his youth when the exchange rate was about 4 dollars to the pound, hence the crown was worth a dollar and the half crown half a dollar,

On that point, a crown used to be worth five shillings (25p), but the new crowns which are often advertised in the Sunday Supplements are sold at a fave value of �5.

When and how did that change happen?

[Octavius]

There have been lots of names for British coins in times past, such as tanner for the old sixpence, bob for a shilling; for the half-crown coin (two shillings and sixpence) there were tosheroon or half a dollar. In the 1870s, the old crown coin, five shillings, was at times called an Oxford, which is rhyming slang (Oxford scholar = dollar).

[d0gsb0dy]

When I was young, the term "half-dollar" was quite common when referring to half a crown. Also, a threepenny piece was known as a "threepenny joey" or "silver joey".

[zmudge]

Famous5 is right. For many years it was $4US to the �, so 2/6d was half a dollar. In my youth we had farthings, ha'pennies, pennies 1d (a copper), silver 3d bits (sprats), silver 6d (tanners), silver 1/-d (bob), silver 2/-d (two bob), silver 2/6d (half a crown or half a dollar), the crown was not in circulation, 10/-d (10 bob) notes, �1 (a quid) notes and large white �5 notes. Much of the coinage was old, and it was quite common to deal in Victorian money. We had to pay for doctor's, who usually charged in guinea's (�1.05d) (as did solicitor's) although the coin had been taken out of circulation in 1813. When I started work the average take home pay for a labourer was �4 and for tradesman �6. I joined the Army on 12/6d per week, paid fortnightly less stoppages.

[zmudge]

In my trip down memory lane last night I forgot to say that the two bob was also called a florin. An odd coin called a double-florin (four bob) also used to appear in your change rarely but now and again.

[Ray the DJ]

When I was a kid we called an half crown 'half a dollar'.  I always thought it was because a dollar was worth about 5 shillings (a crown).