SO in the UK what does it mean if the glass is half empty?

That's why everyone is looking at you. It's your shout next.

"Eighteen pence"- where was that quaint phrase in use, so redolent of powdered wigs? It were always one-and-six when I were a lad. The price of fish and chips at Kidd's. Never heard a "stever", and 6d was a tanner. There was a definite middle- class aura, at least round where I was, about the pronunciation of threepence as "thruppence". Crowns fell out of use before my time, except for special commemorative issues for Churchill's funeral, for example. Farthings had too, but there were lots around in the backs of drawers. Half a crown was half a dollar, which was roughly the rate of exchange during WWII. A ten bob note was a bloody good birthday present, a pound note something parents had, a fiver something shops might refuse to change.

If I give you half a crown
Will you pull your knickers down?

But which has suffered more from inflation: the penny whistle, the tenner banjo, or the grand piano?