I had occasion today to poke around in a box of badges I had hoarded over the years. I was intrigued to find two english thrupenny bits. I had nearly forgotten about this most unusual coin which I had handled as a matter of course for over a quarter of a century.
My main memory was of "Lucky Lumps". These were sweets, about 2" wide and resembling a mini rugby ball. They were made of a substance that would remind you of holiday rock and they had a sugary red coating on the outside. The lucky bit was that they cost a penny and if you were lucky you got a thrupenny bit inside.
The interesting thing about them was that the only thrupence in them was the briefly minted twelve sided brass-nickel coin illustrated above and below.
And it was directly spendable. Irish and British coins circulated together in Ireland up to 1971 when the coinage was decimalised both in Ireland and the UK.
The face of the coin evokes a distant age. The following inscriptions occur on my 1942 coin:
Georgivs VI: George 6th, father of the present Queen
DG: By the Grace of God (Thank God)
BR OMN REX: King of all the Britons
FD: Defender of the Faith
IND EMP: Emperor of India
Some mouthful for its day!
And on the obverse: the thrift plant and the date, in this case 1942, the year of my parents marriage.
I don't hold out any hope for the re-introduction of lucky lumps. No doubt the Health and Safety Authority would see this product as a threat to young innocents. If it didn't choke them they would probably die from the thrupenny germs.
No wonder today's kids have fewer immunities than their parents.
