Forum Topic

Decimalisation: London jumps the gun

As the media have been reporting, it's fifty years today since the UK's currency went decimal. Those of us who were in London the day before, Sunday, may remember that London Transport switched a day early -- choosing a quiet day in case of teething problems.Oh, the excitement of putting new penny pieces in the ticket machine. I can't remember how much the fare was back then but I bet someone on here can.

Susan Kelly ● 2080d33 Comments

Never knew that - thanks for letting us know.

Ken Munn ● 2080d

How many of us I wonder - still convert some things back into 'old' money?

Vanessa Smith ● 2080d

I stopped doing it when a chocolate bar went up to 5 shillings.

Will Watson ● 2080d

...the same one cost 6d when I was a lad.

Will Watson ● 2080d

The wrappers go for a packethttps://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-wrapper-cadburys-dairy-milk-277239300

Russell Pearson ● 2080d

The coins were in circulation over a year before change over day. So your shilling piece suddenly had 5p on it and your two bob had 10p. Cant remember where the 50p piece comes into it or whether the ten shilling (50p) note was phased out before. Andy wouldve known. There certainly was never a 50p note. Surprise surprise there was a hell of a resistance to it all.

Stephen Gould ● 2080d

"Surprise surprise there was a hell of a resistance to it all."plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Will Watson ● 2080d

So the cashier asked you for "one and elevenpence halfpenny" and you handed her half a crown...how much change should you get?

Jim Lawes ● 2080d

> So the cashier asked you for "one and elevenpence halfpenny" and you handed her half a crown...how much change should you get?🤯Cold sweat going back to a maths exam.

Russell Pearson ● 2080d

Feb 7th 1971 if I remember correctly.After that I missed getting a ten bob note in my birthday card from grandparents and aunties.

Keith Iddon ● 2080d

No wonder our trouser pockets couldn't cope:480 halfpennies = one pound!

Jim Lawes ● 2080d

6 pence ha'penny

Andrzej Kowalski ● 2080d

Correct Andrzel. 6 1/2 d.You go top of the class!

Jim Lawes ● 2080d

Correction:I meant to type Andrzel.

Jim Lawes ● 2080d

Remember the old farthing? When I was a kid my family used them to bet on card games.

Susan Kelly ● 2080d

I was a penny away from getting the full shilling,11d,in pocket money then down it went to 4p.I was swindled !

Ben Gemmingen ● 2080d

Walking to the sweet shop on the way home from primary school with a penny in your pocket and asking for the smorgasbord called 'the penny tray'.If you had a thru'penny bit, you were guaranteed a gaggle of mates.

Keith Iddon ● 2080d

If you look at the Bank of England Website there’s a page where you can see what the 50pence note might have looked like if they’d issued one.It’s funny when you come across an old 50 pence coin - they feel massive!

Andrew Jones ● 2080d

Just because some changes are ok does that mean all are ok? The hike in parking charges is not something I expect to get used to any time soon. Nor only being able to pay to park on an app if my phone dies,  or heaven forbid someone doesn’t own a phone.

Maggie Dodge ● 2080d

A log time before decimalisation I had a maths teacher who was a supporter of the Dozenal Society, which still exists.  It wants our entire counting system to switched to base twelve so that ten and 11 would get entirely new digits and what we now call twelve would be written 10.  Then we would have twelvty one, twelvty two, twelvty three etc written as 11, 12, 13 and so on.  The basic argument is that it would make calculations much easier because ten only has factors 2 and 5 whereas 12 can be divided into halves, thirds, quarters, sixths.I still find this concept appealing.

Alastair Banton ● 2080d

Swallowed one on the bus to school one day. It was my bus fare. Remember giggling when I used it again to pay a few days later!!!

Alina Dansord ● 2080d

I agree, Alistair. We used to be able to divide a pound neatly by 3 -- 6/8p -- but try doing that with 100 pennies and you're recurring till Doomsday. Base 12 would make it harder to count on your fingers, though, unless you're from Norfolk.My mum worked in a corner shop back then and was adamant that she would have to give up her job because 'I'll never get the hang of this new money'. She'd have been 37 at the time, so obviously too old and decrepit for new things. Needless to say, she got the hang of it in no time and carried on serving her customers but the fear of The New is a strange thing.

Susan Kelly ● 2080d

Remember the daily 5-minute slots with the 'Decimal Five' jingle?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G76Zp0mxIGo

Susan Kelly ● 2080d

I have the feeling that in the pre-decimal days, people's mental arithmetic was more acute than it is today, simply because with £.s.d, everyone was accustomed from childhood to dealing with a much more complicated financial system and working out complex calculations, involving base 12 and base 20, in their heads.

Colin Jordan ● 2080d

...and we didn't have mobile phones to whip out every time the arithmetic got a little challenging.

Will Watson ● 2080d

If you think that was tricky spare a thought for the Italians when they went from multi mila lira to the euro.Although it was a  pain to convert it did make me feel very wealthy!

Adrian Irving ● 2080d

As I thought ,we got diddled. Item 1970 1971 2013-141 Bacon, back (lb) 65¼d (5s.5¼d) 32.7p (72p kg) —2 Beef, rump steak (lb) 114d (9½ shillings) 57p (£1.25 kg) —3 Beer, lager (pint) 40d (3s.4d) 20p £2.104 Beer, ‘Tarkin’ (pint) — (1974) 14p —5 Bread, white unsliced 800g (loaf) 1 shilling (5p) 8.8p–10p 60p6 Butter, 8-4/5 oz 250g 2 shillings (10p) 10.1p–15p —7 Calculator, pocket, generic — usu. £10 —8 Calculator, Sinclair Cambridge — £19.95 —9 Camera, Polaroid £6.8s.0d (£6.40) £7.30 —10 Camp bed £2.19s.6d (£2.98) £3.72 —11 Car, Mini Cooper £480–£550 £600 £10,50012 Car, Range Rover (launched 1970) — £1988 £57,00013 Carrots (lb) 6d 3.3p (7.3p kg) —14 Chanel No. 5 Parfum, 50cc — £3.19 —15 Cheese, cheddar (lb) 37d (3s.1d) 18.5p (40.8p kg) —16 Cigarettes, 5s, Park Lane — 5p —17 —, 10s, Players No 6 — 10.5p —18 —, 20s (average) 40d (3s.4d) 20p £4.6519 —, 20s, Benson & Hedges — (1978) 57p —

Ben Gemmingen ● 2080d

I always found the Italian lira tricky. I would sometimes stand looking in a shop window trying to work out if the object I was looking at cost £10, £100 or £1000!

Susan Kelly ● 2079d

I'm wondering what to do with my groats. Can't understand why nobody accepts them. All I get is a funny look. Yes, I've ask my doctor - he was very sympathetic, but couldn't really help. He did mention Phyllosan.

Brian Coyle ● 2079d

Absolutely Susan and the notes looked very similar.Handing over a hundred  thousand note instead of ten thousand was an mistake  easy to make, and I did!

Adrian Irving ● 2079d

Just remembered. Back in the day small change in Italy was hard to come by sometimes so the shopkeepers would hand over a few sweets instead.

Adrian Irving ● 2079d

How many bobs were there to the guinea?

Jim Lawes ● 2079d

.. that'll be 21 bob to you squire..unless I'm three halfpence short of a shilling..

Stuart Kerr ● 2079d