As in the nursery rhyme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_a_Song_of_Sixpence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_a_Song_of_Sixpence That form of counting is

As in the nursery rhyme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_a_Song_of_Sixpence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_a_Song_of_Sixpence That form of counting is still understood, recognised, but viewed as archaic in England. I guess it got lost in the evolution of Old English to Middle English, and the interplay of Old Norse plus the subsequent influence of Norman French, all of which bashed the Germanic core of of English in to its modern form.