Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sixpence, thus post-metrication 2½p; also attrib.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: Size, tester, simon, the tanner sixpence.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Tanner. A sixpence. The kiddey tipped the rattling cove a tanner for luck; the lad gave the coachman sixpence for drink.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry in Works (1851) 81: My tanners are like young colts; I’m obliged to hunt ’em into a corner, afore I can get hold on ’em.
1836		‘Blowen’s Man’ in Frisky Vocalist 21: I had a gal the other night, / They call her randy Anna – / I kiss’d her full two dozen times / And she never charged a tanner.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 8 Apr. 3/2: If put up on sale [they] would not fetch a ‘tanner’ apiece ‘on the gibbers’.
1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 579: ‘How much a-piece?’ The Man in the Monument replied, ‘A Tanner.’.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Dec. 3/4: The matter of 3 bob and a tanner, the contents of one of the recesses of his unmentionables.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 143: Find the value of a ‘bob’, a ‘tanner’, a ‘joey’ and a ‘tizzy.’.
1861		M.E. Braddon Trail of the Serpent 360: Oh, a bob and a tanner are eighteen pence.
1870		Bell’s Life in Sydney 24 Sept. 3/2: After a diligent fumbling of pockets between the two ‘swells,’ a veritable ‘tanner’ was found and the cost of their liquor duly liquidated.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 287: Six white mice in a cage for a tanner.
1884		All Sloper’s Half Holiday 8 May 5: [caption] Speaks for itself. Putting a tenor (tanner) on — the favourite hoarse.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Mar. 11/2: As the peculiar lingo, however, is to us unknown, we are unable to console ourselves for the loss of that ‘tanner’ by mentally imbibing the precious wisdom which the words doubtless enclose.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 84: Tanner, a sixpence.
1896		E. Pugh Man of Straw 220: ‘Now, Missis ’Ayseed,’ he said; ‘what do you mean by giving me a bloomin’ tanner for a ride of over two miles?’.
c.1900		Bateman & LeBrunn [perf. Vesta Victoria] A 'oliday on One Pound Ten 🎵 [P]ay three ha'pence for our beer / And even have a tanner sail, although it makes you queer.
1908		Gem 17 Oct. 4: It only costs a tanner to send a wire.
1911		Truth (Sydney) 2 July 1/4: Not so bad to pay a tanner for a pint, but it’s too much for a ‘tiddley’.
1916		J.N. Hall Kitchener’s Mob 13: I’ll bet a tanner you’re a Yank.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 168: Quaffing nectar at mess with gods, golden dishes, all ambrosial. Not like a tanner lunch we have, boiled mutton, carrots and turnips, bottle of Allsop.
1933		‘George Orwell’ Down and Out in Complete Works I (1986) 160: Two ’ogs for the trousers, one and a tanner for the boots, and a ’og for the cap and scarf.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 42: It is pathetic to see them sidle up [...] and ask for a ‘tanner’ on account.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 79: Now and then a window would open and somebody would throw down threepence or a tanner.
1961		‘Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter at Butlins 100: He was no longer the persistent borrower of half-crowns and ‘bobs’ and ‘tanners.’.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 127: Mean people give me a tanner, while others pay a shilling.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 23: Give us a bag of tanners.
1999		Guardian 7 Sept. 20: Each game cost sixpence in the days when a tanner was a tanner.