English

Alternative forms

• (with pence) three halfpence, three-halfpence, three ha'pence, three-ha'pence
• (with pennies) three halfpennies, three-halfpennies, three ha'pennies, three-ha'pennies

Noun

three halfpence ‎(plural three halfpennies)

1. (historical of numismatics) A silver coin with a face value of one and a half pence (1½d.):
   1. Such an English coin (1½d.), minted 1561–1582.
   2. Such a British coin (1½d. = £⅟₁₆₀), minted 1834–1843 and 1860–1862 for circulation in the colonies of the British Empire (chiefly Ceylon and the West Indies).
      • 1855, Charles Edwards, The History and Poetry of Finger-rings, chapter iii, § 6, page 133:

        There is a singular custom prevailing in some parts of Northamptonshire and probably there are other places where a similar practice exists. If a female is afflicted with fits, nine pieces of silver money and nine three-halfpennies are collected from nine bachelors. The silver money is converted into a ring to be worn by the afflicted person and the three-halfpennies (i.e. 13½d.) are paid to the maker of the ring, an inadequate remuneration for his labor but which he good-naturedly accepts.

2. (dated, Britain) A money of account equal to 1½d.
   • 2011, Angela Horn, Phantom Seven: Secret Heroes of WWII and OSS, page 66:

     The fare was threepence for the two of us but in addition to the accent problem (dialect almost), they asked for it as “two three-halfpennies, please.” The translation of that is: two fares (Margo and me) of three halfpennies each. Whether I would have understood it if he had said “a penny and a half” I don’t know, but “one thruppence” I surely would have understood.

Translations