Bob Tanner

[firetto]

What is a "bob" and a "tanner"?

[molly]

A bob is an old shilling (5p), and a tanner is an old sixpence (2 1/2p)

[Ewood27]

To add to Molly's answer, there was a thread about these names some time ago. The tanner got its name because one version of the coin was designed by a Mr Tanner. We never did find an explanation for the nickname "bob" for 1/- (one shilling for the youngsters who don't recognise that!).

[Quizmonster]

1. The Oxford English Dictionary says the origin of �tanner' is uncertain. Here are a few possible sources, however. As Ewood says, a man called Tanner was a coin-designer in the reign of George II; however, the designer died in 1775 and the king died in 1760. The very first use of the word �tanner' to mean �sixpence' did not appear in print before 1811. You would have expected the word to emerge in written form somewhere during their lifetimes rather than about two generations later. I very much doubt we'd decide to nickname a coin today after a designer who worked in 1950.

Here are three more possibilities, the first of which seems - to me at least - to be more likely. The Italian word for 'small change' is (was?) 'denaro', which sounds pretty like 'tanner'. There is also the Romany word 'tawno' meaning 'little one' and the sixpence was a small coin. Again, the word sounds very like 'tanner'. Finally, there may be a connection with 'thaler' - from which we get 'dollar' - an old German silver coin. Not quite so close in sound, but still a possibility. Take your pick!

2. As for 'bob' = shilling, again no-one is certain. It is true that there was a French coin in the 14th century called a 'bobe', so there just could be a connection. That seems a bit thin, though, given that the first use of the word �bob' to mean �shilling' did not appear until about 400 years later...an even greater gap than the one affecting �tanner'!

[Postie]

Ok QM - another one for you, why "Joey"?

[Quizmonster]

A threepenny-bit - that's the name of an old coin and not a piece of vulgar Cockney rhyming slang! - was sometimes nicknamed a 'joey'. The name had earlier been applied to a groat or fourpenny-bit and was taken from that of a Mr Joseph Hume, who had pressed for such a coin to be reintroduced to the British money-system.

[Sappy]

A bob is an old shilling and a tanner is an old sixpence