Sing a song of sixpence, /A pocket full of rye; /Four and twenty black birds, /Baked in a pie. /When the pie was opened, /The birds began to sing; /Was not that a dainty dish, /To set before the king?
This silver English sixpence was minted in 1575--more than 400 years ago. The actual size is about that of our modern-day quarter. Worn and beat up as it is, you can still see the very dignified portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. The phrase, "Sing a song of sixpence," goes far back in common usage, most likely to be employed at taverns to request songs, as revealed by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, "Come on, there is a sixpence for you; let's have a song." The earliest known printed appearance of the nursery rhyme is in TOM THUMB'S PRETTY SONG BOOK, Vol II, published around 1744 when King George II was on England's throne.
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile, /He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile. /He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse, /And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
This silver English sixpence features King George II and was minted in 1758. Actual size is close to our present-day nickel. Some say that long ago, in England, a bent sixpence was thought to be a good luck charm. However, one coin dealer I spoke with claimed that it was actually the unbent sixpence of a despised king that was considered bad luck! This nursery rhyme is first known to be in print in 1842 in the volume, The Nursery Rhymes of England. As the title of the book implies, the rhyme was commonly known and recited long before it was published.