A Day in the Life of a Shilling

A Day in the Life of a Shilling by E.V. Lucas

A shilling narrates its adventures over a single day, describing how a coin passes through many hands and hears the stories of other coins and objects along the way. The shilling wakes on a dressing-table in a gentleman's house, warmed by sunshine through the blinds, having recently emerged from nearly a year locked in a little girl's money-box, where its only companions were low pennies and a rude threepenny bit. The girl's mother exchanged it at a flower-shop for a pot of musk, and a grey-haired gentleman received it as change when buying pink carnations for a lady on Campden Hill. On the dressing-table it meets an old, deaf half-crown, a tired florin, coarse pennies, and a proud sovereign who ignores everyone. A silver-backed hair-brush nearby tells stories of its own past in a Bond-Street window and a romance with a tortoiseshell comb, until the gentleman picks up the brush to use it. Dressed and pocketed alongside the half-crown and florin, the shilling accompanies the gentleman to the Notting Hill Gate Tube station, where it is pushed to a ticket-seller and then given as change to a traveller. That traveller, seeing off a little boy to school at Liverpool Street, almost tips the boy with the shilling but gives a half-crown instead. The shilling then passes through the city: to a bus conductor, then to a lady heading to a special service at St. Paul's, into a collection plate, then paid out by a clergyman needing silver, to a cabman, and then as change to a gentleman travelling from the Albany to Waterloo, who pockets it while riding a train, smoking and reading, on the way to the races. On the train, another coin explains they are headed to the races, where fortunes for their master can be won or lost. A boastful five-shilling piece dismisses the shilling as too small to matter. At the racecourse, the gentleman spends the shilling on a race-card, and it ends up in a till, then as change to a waiter in the members' restaurant, where the shilling meets a bank-note for the first time, admiring her refined, rustling manner. The shilling is given to the waiter as a tip. The waiter then uses the shilling to bet on a horse called Flatiron at odds of tens, dropping it into a bag with other coins wagered on horses including Saucy Sally, Pink Pearl, Rufus, and See-you-later. Flatiron wins, and the shilling, along with a half-sovereign, is paid out to the waiter as winnings, though the half-sovereign offers no thanks. The waiter spits on both coins for luck and pockets them, later spending the shilling in a refreshment tent, where it passes through a wet counter into a till and is then given as change to a chauffeur. Riding back to London in the motor-car, the shilling talks with another shilling that has a hole bored through it. This holed shilling recounts being worn on a blue ribbon around a little girl's neck, going with her to the pantomime and to "Peter Pan," until a thief cut the ribbon and stole it from around her neck. Since then it can no longer be spent by day, only slipped to cabmen at night, and it complains of overhearing cabmen's harsh language. It also warns that being a counterfeit coin is worse still, describing a bad half-crown nailed permanently to a tobacconist's counter in Bermondsey, unable ever to move or be spent again. Once the car reaches the garage, the chauffeur changes clothes and goes out for the evening with the shilling and other coins in his pockets. But the shilling falls through a hole in the chauffeur's pocket into the muddy street, terrified of being run over by horses and motor-cars. A heavy rain shower washes the mud away, making the shilling visible, and a man picks it up, bites it to test it, and takes it with his wife and small son to a Lockhart's refreshment-room for coffee and bread and butter, spending the shilling there. Later that evening, the shilling is given as change to a navvy out with his girl, who spend it at a circus, where it is dropped into the ticket-office till after passing through the grating. Lying in the crowded till, the shilling reflects on the busy and useful life a coin leads, listing the day's transactions and services it has enabled, including church collections, race winnings, and feeding the hungry. Just as it is settling to rest, a circus manager collects change, taking the shilling out again. The manager spends it on a train ticket, and it passes as change to a gentleman travelling to Notting Hill Gate, who pockets it and, upon returning home, places it back on the very same dressing-table where the shilling began the day, beside the silver-backed hair-brush. The hair-brush asks whether the shilling was spent that day, and the shilling recounts its whole journey through London to the brush before the narrative closes on this exchange.

By E.V. Lucas · First published 1901 · Genre: Satirical Fiction, Philosophical Fiction, Humorous Fiction · 3,671 words

First lines

Has it ever occurred to you through how many hands a piece of money passes in the course of a day, a week, a month, and what it does for its owners during that time? I am fortunately in the position to be able to tell you of the adventures of a shilling of my acquaintance during a single day; and the story will show you how busy a piece of silver can be.

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satire · social commentary · British literature · novella · fiction · Edwardian era · London · personification · allegory · economics · class systems · character study

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