Nashauna Drummond and Barbara Ellington, Gleaner Writers

BOJ five shillings - Contributed

Some say it can't buy happiness, but may go a far way in moving the process along; while for others, it's the root of all evil. The culprit? Money. Most of us cannot imagine how we could function daily without money. But we didn't always have money as we know it today. Before money, there was the barter system. If someone had bananas, they could trade it with someone who had pears. But you can imagine the problems that ensued if you had oranges and someone wanted it, but they had shoes and you don't want shoes. So from that system of trade, evolved the money that we use today, which has been through many changes and many faces.

The Chinese were the first to use a note to represent monetary value in the 14th century. This note was extremely large: 8 x 13 inches (222mm x 340). Our (Jamaica's) history of money is much shorter, beginning in the 16th century with the Spaniards. In 1840, the British currency became legal tender in Jamaica. These were the penny, shilling, quattie, farthing, half penny and later shilling and pound notes. Of course, being Jamaicans, we had our own dialect or patios versions of all the above, so pound became poun'; shilling became shillin'; half penny was ha' penny; farthing was fardin'; three pence was chuppance(Tropense); and sixpence was sixpance. While many of us weren't around when these currencies were in use, they are kept alive in a number of our folk songs. For example; "Carry mi ackee go a Linstead market, not a quattie wut sell".

As we celebrate Heritage Week, Lifestyle took a walk down memory lane and found out what some of these denominations could buy prior to the decimalisation of the currency on September 8, 1969.

Value for money

Left: Half Penny-willli penny Right: Jamaica farthing which was the valued quarter penny.

If you wanted a beer, you would have to shell out the princely sum of one shilling and three pence (one an chuppance). A child in the rural areas would sometimes get penny half penny (quattie), for sugar, and a bulla or some crackers. That was a belly-full.

Mrs. Pearline Sandford of Sanguinetti, Clarendon, recalls that many women used to go to the market on weekends with just two shillings and return with hampers full. An acre of good land sold for the princely sum of 10 pounds and two shillings and sixpence, and sixpence got you a young ram goat kid, but you paid a guinnea (21 shillings) for a calf.

"Chairs for the dining table cost five shillings, and a wagon in which grocery and utensils were kept cost 10 shillings. As a newly married woman, I bought a cup and saucer for a quattie, and dinner plates for a shilling each," she said.

For the construction of houses, American lumber sold for 11 shillings per hundred and the best grade zinc went for a shilling per sheet, her husband Mr. Ephel Sandford added.

Today's high costs of clothing, are a far cry from the days when the best dress or pair of shoes went for six shillings; khaki and print fabrics cost sixpence per yard, and calico sold for four pence ha'penny!

But the grocery bill literally takes the cake. Shopkeepers paid only 16 shillings for a 100-pound barrel of cod fish, and 18 shillings for a 200-pound barrel of mackerel. These were so heavy; it took four men to carry them. And, a farthing sugar could make three glasses of lemonade.

Old time prices

Left: A penny (willy penny) Right: Three pence that Jamaicans called 'tropence' - photos by Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

One pint of cooking oil sold for tuppence half penny.

A half pint size of cream soda cost a penny.

Sardines were two pence halfpenny each.

Rice was a maximum of two pence a pound.

Four large mint balls cost a penny, and a dozen busta sold for three pence.

Saltfish was two pence half penny or three pence a pound.

Mackerel was two pence half penny a pound and shad and herring went for penny half penny or two pence per pound.

Water crackers were gill (half penny and a farthing) a dozen.

Good cuts of beef cost four pence half penny a pound and when market was 'bad', you could get it for two pence half penny a pound.

As we celebrate National Heroes Day next Monday (October 15), before your money slips from your grasp, take a look at the image printed on it and remember; Nanny of the Maroons, Paul Bogle, Sam Sharpe, George William Gordon, Alexander Bustamante, Donald Sangster, and Norman Manley and the tremendous contribution they made in various ways to the development of our country Jamaica.

barbara.ellington@gleanerjm.com, nashauna.drummond@gleanerjm.com

Left: A Bank of Jamaica issued 10l (10 shilling) which they began issuing in 1961. Right: Five pounds. - Contributed photos

Left: British penny ha' penny (quattie). Right: The image of King George VI on a farthing.