The programme cost only
threepence new (three old pennies, or just over 1p in modern money).
Wandering in a London warehouse in search of a bargain, Phillips came upon shelves of cheap old books, vowing to buy the first one that cost
threepence (roughly a dime) and "make it serve a serious longterm project." This happened to be A Human Document--a chance discovery (Phillips also liked its title.) He admits to admiring the aleatory methods of John Cage, but a more germane reference point in this case, it seems to me, is Andre Breton, especially the Surrealist forefather's sudden, spontaneous, discovery of "surreally" exciting objects in junk shops--that is, old, discarded objects from the seemingly remote past, which have no meaning in the present and no future.
At a guess, it was a shilling for the eldest, ninepence for the second, then sixpence,
threepence and a penny halfpenny for me.
Final specification of the coin is expected to be finalised after a public consultation, but the proposed coin in expected to be distinctly British with a twelve-sided shape, similar to the pre-decimalisation
threepence piece.
In 1910, private boxes cost up to 15 shillings when a seat in the upper tiers could cost as little as
threepence.
This would, at the very least, have allowed the master to flog copies of his almanac (at
threepence a throw) as a set text!
Threepence stakes mean that you have to unearth some serious value to make the game pay.
The entire squad had its hair cut at a small kiosk inside Fulham Broadway tube station - because the barber was a Chelsea fan and gave us
threepence off the standard price of one shilling.
A soft cushion was on offer for an extra
threepence.
On D-Day the new 1/2p, 1p and 2p coins were introduced but most old coins - the penny,
threepence, sixpence, shilling and florin - were legal tender for a while.
Among things William Hone enjoyed in 1825 were the living skeleton, an elephant which uncorked bottles, a glassblower in a glass wig blowing tea-cups for
threepence apiece and baby crocodiles being hatched from eggs by steam.
Telephone subscribers, he said, "have the security at present" that they'll be called only by fellow subscribers, who are "equally interested in the telephone not becoming a nuisance." But "if everybody who has a penny or
threepence to spare" is free to "ring up any subscriber ...