 A slang name for a shilling was a "bob" (plural as singular, as in "that cost me two bob").The first recorded use was in a case of coining heard at the Old Bailey in 1789, when it was described as cant, "well understood among a certain set of people", but heard only among criminals and their associates.In much of West Africa, white people are called "toubabs", which may derive from the colonial practice of paying locals two shillings for running errands.