Comments on: Peppercorn rent

By: Stan

Stan — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 18:20:36 +0000

Rach: There’s a pleasant coincidence. Thanks for stopping by, and for the interesting link.

By: rachsmith

rachsmith — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:44:00 +0000

Funny – I’ve been researching a piece on peppercorns (http://www.souschef.co.uk/bureau-of-taste/pepper-the-rise-and-fall-of-black-gold/) and was discussing ‘peppercorn rent’ with my colleague. Got bogged down in discussion – because peppercorn rent means nominal rent. But then peppercorns were expensive in medieval Europe…!

By: This Week’s Language Blog Roundup: presidents’ words, dialect controversy, fairy tales | Wordnik

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:04:25 +0000

[...] Carey looked at peppercorn rent and the controversy that has arisen in the UK when “a Teesside school principal asked parents to [...]

By: Stan

Stan — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:09:56 +0000

Alex: Unlike peppercorns, rai stones are famously hard to misplace: there is no hole-in-a-pocket big enough to lose them through.

Elissa: Interesting. Thanks for letting me know.

By: Elissa

Elissa — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:32:31 +0000

A not-for-profit organisation I’m involved with pays a peppercorn rent. It actually says something like “one peppercorn annually” in the lease. They’ve never asked for it though… (This is in Australia)

By: alexmccrae1546

alexmccrae1546 — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:57:38 +0000

Discovered this interesting little anecdote on a cursory Wiki-Search of “peppercorn rent”, yesterday:

“The Masonic Lodge of St. George’s, Bermuda, rents the Old State House as their lodge for the annual sum of a single peppercorn, presented to the Governor of Bermuda on a velvet cushion atop a silver platter, in an annual ceremony performed since 1816 on or about April 23.”

The notion of the diminutive “peppercorn” as representing either a literal, or purely abstract/ symbolic rate of paltry legal tender (as in say “peppercorn rent”), got me musing about the extreme opposite end of the world currency continuum*; namely, those curious, often gigantic circular sculpted limestone/ calcite rocks (with a large hole hewn through the middle) called rai stones, traditionally used, for centuries, by the Micronesian islanders of Yap as legitimate legal tender, or more abstractly, as symbolic markers of social status, or hierarchy within the tribe, or clan.

The largest of these rai stones have measured close to 12-feet in diameter, and weigh in excess of 8,000 pounds. Clearly, the folks on Yap wouldn’t be carrying these hefty ‘coins’ around in some palm-fiber change-purse slung over the hip. HA!

Traditionally, various types of prized local shells were used as day-to-day currency back in the day, prior to the advent of ‘modern’ paper currency and coinage in more recent years. (Interestingly, on the current Yap paper bills, their rai stone is said to be prominently displayed.)

*Not that there is actually a “world currency continuum”. (Made that one up.) But hopefully you folk get my drift?

By: missjane

missjane — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:22:50 +0000

Yes; not in the legal language or formal documents, but in describing the arrangements.