The phrase "a half crown" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a former British coin worth two shillings and sixpence, or in a historical context discussing currency.
Example: "He found an old coin in the attic, and it turned out to be a half crown from the 1950s."
Alternatives: "two shillings and sixpence" or "25 pence".
That started in Victorian times with a half crown marked with a knife, then as banknotes became more popular they were taken, signed and returned via the fruit.
I would hoard my pocket money for weeks — occasionally one of my uncles, approving my secret passion, would slip me a half crown or so — and then take a succession of trains and buses to the shop.
He gave his wages straight to his cotton-weaver mother (his odd-job-man father was a jack of all trades called Jack), who gave him back a half crown to pay for the tram.
"I'm privileged," he says, "to have had some success but I've never forgotten what it was like to queue for a half-crown gallery seat for Oliver! which is why I ensure that there are £20 day tickets for Miss Saigon and that the balconies in my theatres are as comfortable as I can possibly make them".
Henriques, 60, is slender and shirtless, with a half-crown of thin white hair and round professorial glasses.
When he borrowed a half-crown from her on their first meeting, and repaid it the next day, he knew they would marry.
Celebrate loose curls with a half-crown braid.
There's the unidentified animal skull he brought home from a woodland walk, the corroded half crown he found half-buried in a park.
If my suspicions prove founded, and he has taken the Venables half crown, then that is a commercial step too far in this most depressingly commercial of all World Cups.
He was named a Florida State League All Star, and helped the Miracle capture the FSL 2008 Western Division first half crown.
