What Will You Give Me for My Pound? Lyrics
Six lines of questions and answers about old British money. A pound buys twenty shillings, a shilling buys twelve pence, and a penny buys four farthings. A short poem that is also a little lesson in change.
What Will You Give Me for My Pound?
What will you give me for my pound?
Full twenty shillings round.
What will you give me for my shilling?
Twelve pence to give I'm willing.
What will you give me for my penny?
Four farthings, just so many.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/what-will-you-give-me-for-my-pound/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Counting Rhymes
- Written by
- Christina Rossetti
- Tune
- Brisk question and answer, like a shopkeeper counting coins
- Best for ages
- 5 to 9 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| What will you give me for my pound? | Hold out one open hand with a pretend coin in it. |
| Twelve pence to give I'm willing | Count to twelve on your fingers and thumbs, then add two more fingers. |
| Four farthings, just so many | Hold up four fingers. |
What Does What Will You Give Me for My Pound? Mean?
The poem is three swaps. Someone hands over a coin and asks what they will get for it, and each time the answer is smaller coins. A pound is worth twenty shillings ("full twenty shillings round" means the full twenty, with nothing short). A shilling is worth twelve pence. A penny is worth four farthings, because a farthing was a quarter of a penny.
That is the money Britain used until Decimal Day, 15 February 1971, when the pound became 100 new pence. Under the old system there were 240 pence in a pound, and 960 farthings. The poem lets a child hear the sums as rhymes: pound with round, shilling with willing, penny with many. Said aloud, each pair does rhyme, and a child can finish the second line of each swap once the pattern is clear.
It is a good first poem about change. A child who has seen coins can say what one coin buys in smaller ones, and the poem hands them the rhyme to remember it by.
History and Origin
The money in the poem was ordinary British money when Christina Rossetti wrote in the 1870s, and every child who heard it would have known the coins. After 1971 the shilling and the farthing went out of use, which is why the poem needs explaining today.
The verse was printed in Sing-Song in 1872. The three swaps repeat one pattern, and the count of old pence in a pound, 240, is the same number as 20 times 12.
Learning Activities
- Coin swap: use play coins or buttons: one big coin for twelve small ones, and say the lines as you swap.
- Do the sum: ask older children to work out 20 times 12 and see why there were 240 pence in a pound.
- Shop play: one child is the shopkeeper who gives change, and the other asks 'what will you give me for my ...?'
- Look at real change: lay out the coins you use today and ask how many of the small ones make the big one.