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    D-Day, 1971

    We're coming up to the 50th anniversary of D-Day - decimalisation day. I was only eight years old at the time but I remember it freshly, vividly - public information films like this and jingles such as "decimalisation, decimali-ise, decimalisation, decimali-ise". I remember the smell of the new coins, the tiny halfpenny pieces included. I earnestly committed to memory the conversion rates - that the old sixpences, retained in circulation for tooth fairy and Christmas pudding purposes, were now worth two and a half new pence, for example. I recall the excitement of D-Day itself. I don't recall much resistance, above and beyond a bit of grumbling from elderly relatives not good with numbers, about the changeover. I remember my Grandma taking me out shopping just so I could do the conversions for her.

    For me, it signalled life as a continuing unfurling of modernity - the moon landings, colour TV sets, now new money. God help them if they'd delayed decimalisation to this day and age and the indignant pygmies like Rees-Mogg and Francois who would have led the resistance. We'd probably have seen the return of the fucking farthing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlNO...GwO2y-lClUiE2w

    #2
    I was "poorly", so I didn't go into school. "Poorly" on a Monday. Could you believe it?

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by wingco View Post
      I don't recall much resistance, above and beyond a bit of grumbling from elderly relatives not good with numbers, about the changeover. I remember my Grandma taking me out shopping just so I could do the conversions for her.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlNO...GwO2y-lClUiE2w
      I remember complaints about inflation on the sly. Greengrocers turning "one shilling and sixpence" into 8p instead of ... (reaches for calculator) ... 7 and 1/2p.

      I was given a set of the new coins in a blue display case. Not for spending, and you can imagine how long that edict lasted.

      Comment


        #4
        My mum still uses a tea towel produced to explain this new tangled money.

        Comment


          #5
          I assume that some of the youngsters with experience on the Continent will recall the introduction of Euro coins and notes in 2002

          Some Italian supermarkets still print receipts with totals in Lire

          I was a bit sad to have missed out on pre-decimal currency, not having visited before 1976

          Though pre-decimal coins were still in wide circulation on that and subsequent visits

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by tee rex View Post
            I was given a set of the new coins in a blue display case. Not for spending, and you can imagine how long that edict lasted.
            I had one of those too. I wonder if anyone was sad enough to keep them...

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by wingco View Post
              a bit of grumbling from elderly relatives not good with numbers
              Anyone who could understand the old system could definitely not be described as "not good with numbers".

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                Though pre-decimal coins were still in wide circulation on that and subsequent visits
                Shillings and florins were still legal currency into the nineties. Sixpences and half-crowns kept going until the demise of the halfpenny in the very early eighties.

                Comment


                  #9
                  https://www.etsy.com/listing/934435996/1971-coinage-of-great-britain-and

                  https://www.ebay.com/itm/Britains-Fi....m46890.l49292




                  Last edited by ursus arctos; 06-02-2021, 22:53.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Remember the day well. A few of the stall-holders on Portobello Road refused to price their stock in 'New Pence.' It lasted about a week. In a totally unconnected incident I saw John Cleese having an animated discussion with someone at Notting Hill Gate an hour or so later.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      At those prices I'm really glad I spent them. Or would be, if I still had the vinyl 45s and Airfix models I probably bought (the sherbert's gone).

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Ironically only the penny and twopenny bit of those are still legal tender...

                        Re: the original UK decimal coinage.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Snake Plissken View Post

                          Anyone who could understand the old system could definitely not be described as "not good with numbers".
                          I was crap with numbers but could calculate Pounds, Shillings and Pence in my head from the age of four. Still can for that matter.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Useful talent...

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                              Ironically only the penny and twopenny bit of those are still legal tender...

                              Re: the original UK decimal coinage.
                              That's not right is it? Didn't they shrink like shillings and florins (5p & 10p) and 20p and 50p.

                              Money was so big in the past.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                See my post of 22:48.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  No. I'm wrong. 1 and 2ps are the same size.

                                  I do like Wikipedia's statement that the current penny is the lowest value coin ever to circulate in the UK in real terms.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    I've had a quick search around and it's surprising how quickly (some) things moved to decimal prices only. The Radio Times, for example.

                                    In my recollection books, like Puffin paperbacks, had both prices on the cover for a while. I'm not sure when that stopped.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      That's a hilarious stat, but it has to be right. Half pence out of circulation. 5p shrunk. 10p shrunk. 20p didn't exist. 50p shrunk. 1 and 2 quid coins didn't exist. Pound note has ceased to exist. 5 quid shrunk and changed, as did 10 quid and 20 quid and I think the 50 quid didn't exist.

                                      But the 1p and 2p remain unchanged.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                                        Shillings and florins were still legal currency into the nineties. Sixpences and half-crowns kept going until the demise of the halfpenny in the very early eighties.
                                        Ironically, the florin was introduced as part of an abortive Victorian attempt to introduce decimalisation, the topic being a running gag in Trollope's Phineas Finn series.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                                          That's a hilarious stat, but it has to be right. Half pence out of circulation. 5p shrunk. 10p shrunk. 20p didn't exist. 50p shrunk. 1 and 2 quid coins didn't exist. Pound note has ceased to exist. 5 quid shrunk and changed, as did 10 quid and 20 quid and I think the 50 quid didn't exist.

                                          But the 1p and 2p remain unchanged.
                                          Except for the removal of the word "New", of course.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by tee rex View Post
                                            In my recollection books, like Puffin paperbacks, had both prices on the cover for a while. I'm not sure when that stopped.
                                            Many shops had double pricing for several months. I can't remember when, or if, it became illegal to post prices in "old money."

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              My earliest-ever memory is of Decimal Day, as that was the day I first moved house (I was three at the time).

                                              Me: "What's Decimal Day?"
                                              My mother: "It's the day people have to move house because little boys have misbehaved."

                                              I didn't like my mother.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by wingco View Post
                                                We're coming up to the 50th anniversary of D-Day - decimalisation day. I was only eight years old at the time but I remember it freshly, vividly - public information films like this and jingles such as "decimalisation, decimali-ise, decimalisation, decimali-ise". I remember the smell of the new coins, the tiny halfpenny pieces included. I earnestly committed to memory the conversion rates - that the old sixpences, retained in circulation for tooth fairy and Christmas pudding purposes, were now worth two and a half new pence, for example. I recall the excitement of D-Day itself. I don't recall much resistance, above and beyond a bit of grumbling from elderly relatives not good with numbers, about the changeover. I remember my Grandma taking me out shopping just so I could do the conversions for her.

                                                For me, it signalled life as a continuing unfurling of modernity - the moon landings, colour TV sets, now new money. God help them if they'd delayed decimalisation to this day and age and the indignant pygmies like Rees-Mogg and Francois who would have led the resistance. We'd probably have seen the return of the fucking farthing.

                                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlNO...GwO2y-lClUiE2w

                                                I thought that the jingle went, "Decimalisation, decimalise, decimalisation will change your life" but I could be misremembering.

                                                My poor old granny never went shopping again. That would have been for around five years that she asked other people to go for her, though TBF she was well into her 80s at that point and not particularly mobile.
                                                Last edited by Nocturnal Submission; 29-11-2022, 12:45.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  I think there were a fair number of people like that. My Grandmother, then in her mid-70s, was still asking "What's that in real money?" several years later.

                                                  I did wonder, as part of the Brexit euphoria, whether some swivel-eyed wing-nut out on the furthest edge might try to foment a 'Bring Back Proper Money' movement. But seems not.
                                                  Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 07-02-2021, 01:24.

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