Was "quatie" (or other homophonous spelling) West Indian slang for this coin? edit

I remember singing the Jamaican song Linstead Market at school in the early 1980s. It contained the word "quatie" as it was spelled in the book we used, which according to the book was a "penny halfpenny" - or in other words three halfpence. Could that name itself in turn have been derived from the fact that it was a quarter of a sixpence? I have also seen it spelled with two t's, a y and as "quartie". It is as "quattee" in the version here. EmleyMoor 13:50, 8 November 2007 (UTC)Reply