Description
Lucky sixpence pendent, or a ‘tanner’ as it used to be called, was worth half a shilling. There used to be 40 sixpences to a pound and the sixpence was in circulation in Britain until 1980. As the supply of silver threepence coins slowly disappeared, sixpences replaced them as the coins to be put into Christmas puddings, when children (and adults!) would hope to be the lucky one to find the sixpence, no doubt also encouraging them to eat more pudding. They have also been seen as a lucky charm for brides, with an old rhyme which goes ‘Something old, something new / Something borrowed, something blue / And a sixpence for her (left) shoe.’ They are also used as a good luck charm by Royal Air Force aircrew, who have them sewn behind their wings or brevets – a custom dating back to the Second World War
