What does "half-crown" mean?

A pre-decimal coin used in Britain, Ireland and New Zealand, equivalent to 30 pence or two shillings and six pence.

Half-crown

Common synonyms include: alderman, half-a-bull, half-a-dollar, half-a-tusheroon, half-a-tosheroon, hog, madza caroon.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A pre-decimal coin used in Britain, Ireland and New Zealand, equivalent to 30 pence or two shillings and six pence. historical
"[…] though we play but half-crowns, you know you may bet half guineas with him."

"[…] though we play but half-crowns, you know you may bet half guineas with him."

From its value of half of the crown (five-shilling) coin.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.