Talk:Tally sticks

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In his famous diary, British Naval administrator Samuel Pepys describes going to the office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, where he worked as a clerk for George Downing, the man who built Downing Street. At the Exchequer Pepys would go "...to strike his tallies." This was a form of reconciling accounts, and the account cited is from "The Shorter Pepys," edited by Robert Lapham.

if the sticks were split lengthwise, how did one person receive a shorter end? Suppafly 15:46, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

This is a correct reflection. The saying "the short end of the stick" has no known relationship with the concept of split tallies. (See the article - The Long Story of The Short End of the Stick, Charles Clay Doyle, American Speech, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Spring, 1994), pp. 96-101.) The best bet seems to be that this expression relates to the common lot drawing with two or more unequally long sticks. However, the Exchequer Tallies used by the Bank of England were cut in a manner producing a long and a short portion of the stick by splitting the tally only part of the way in a lengthwise fashion. For a reference see the first external link at the end of this article *Photo of Medieval Exchequer Tallies*.Popeye2 05:30, 14 July 2007 (UTC)