That a top hat from the Hatters emporium cost half a Guinea to purchase is fact most particular and enlightening. That the sum do equal ten shillings and sixpence is self-evident from the price ticket highly visible casually slipped into the ribbon tied about the stout base of the Hatters own fashionable chapeau.
One Guinea, the sum of one pound and one shilling was a coin that was much used and trusted in Victorian times and previous. Nowadays the designation is only spoke of in vary particular cases, in regard to distances and wagers especially horse racing, and when bidding or settling debts in an auction house, being the purchase price plus one additional twentieth as the auctioneer’s fee and commission. At the time of Wonderlands publication these sterling amounts were in common idiom and do remain so in the United Kingdom today.
‘Tis significant that the longevity of the tales do have correlation with the use of the verbiage in daily language, a particularly fortunate choice of phraseology on Carroll’s part.
Daily Abstract Thoughts 