Change for a Guinea

This print depicts sailors drinking and smoking from pipes in a tavern. A woman approaches the sailors to make change for their guinea, equal to 21 shillings. As the sailors are distracted by flirting with the woman, she cheats them out of money. The landlord marks scores down with chalk in the background.

Satirical prints of this type often featured and took inspiration from songs and ballads. This print may have been inspired by Charles Dibdin’s song ‘Change for a Guinea’, which describes a sailor meeting with old shipmates ashore. In a pub, he asks the landlord’s daughter to change his guinea but is too distracted by lust to notice that she is short-changing him. In Dibdin’s words: ‘For each chalk on his score / She counts two or more / He fix’d on her eyes, while she penetrates his, / And cheats him while changing his guinea’.

A common comedic trope associated with sailors in the eighteenth century was their carelessness and foolishness once onshore, especially with money. The ballad also suggests a stereotypical lascivious sailor, who is easily distracted by flirting. In this instance, given seamen’s capacity to spend money and flirt carelessly, the young woman and landlord take advantage of the situation.