three halfpence

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.

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.