What does the "10/6" mean on the Mad Hatter's hat from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland?
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ANSWERS: 3
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On the label in the hatband it says "In this style" and the 10/6 is the price. Hatters used to hawk their wares on the street and were noted for their bazaar behavior. In England at the time of Lewis Carroll the pound Sterling was (and is) the central unit of money. Prior to adopting decimal units, the pound was divided into twenty shillings and each shilling was divided into twelve pennies or pence. Amounts of money were written in various ways. The pound was represented, as it still is, by a £ sign, the shilling by a 's' and the penny by a 'd' (for 'denarius', a Roman silver coin which was also used as the name for the English silver penny). So the meaning of £1-10s-6d is fairly obvious. But amounts below a pound were also written 10/6 meaning 10s-6d. An amount such as 10/6 would be pronounced "ten and six" as a more casual form of "ten shillings and sixpence". http://www.hgtech.com/Information/Mad%20Hatter's%20Hat.htm
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10/6 is the price of the hat
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The price (old English money).
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