Talk:The Moon and Sixpence

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Untitled[edit]

dream and reality in "SThe moon and sixpence "

Origin of the Title[edit]

Does anyone have any idea what the title, "The Moon and Sixpence" means, where it comes from, or what Maugham meant by it? I do not recognize it as a quote from anything. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.18.25.60 (talk) 19:54, 18 September 2007 (UTC) a song for sixpence. His picuture was only for a song. Must we pay for art? Moon means women. See Mother Goose. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.128.49.127 (talk) 06:52, 4 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed the following from the section relating to the title, as it is unsupported by references and in my experience it is at least partly wrong.

Traditionally, shillings and pence were written together with a slash and quoted together. E.g. 1/6 was "one shilling and six pence". In the common case where there were no shillings but a zero was required, it became colloquially called the moon.

The line between the 1 and the 6 was not known as a slash when £sd was in use: it is a reduced form of a long "s" (for shillings/solidi) and is technically a solidus; further "1/6" was spoken "one and six" or "one and sixpence": see £sd. The form "0/6d" was rarely found, and I know of no authority for it being called a "moon". In any case, the digression does not help to explain the title at all.Thomas Peardew (talk) 14:46, 15 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Removed commercial plug[edit]

I have removed from the In popular culture section the following: "The Moon and Sixpence is the name of a popular Irish pub in Portland, Oregon." Reason: uncited claim, probable commercial plug. To reinstate this claim, provide a reliable reference proving its notable popularity. WP is an encyclopedia. David Spector (user/talk) 13:14, 1 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]