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Decimalisation Day, 1971

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20A-Manor House
Coventry
1 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 10:52am  

D-Day, Decimal Day. For the passenger side of British Rail was 50 years ago today, while the rest of us had to wait until the 15th (tomorrow):
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
Helen F
Warrington
2 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 11:09am  

I was lucky, by the time that I was aware of money, decimalisation was fully adopted.
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
Mick Strong
Coventry
3 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 12:09pm  

I still have a bag of "tanners", with some I think may have a silver content?
Mick Strong

Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
4 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 12:33pm  

Mick Strong, weren't they all silver, tanner or joey. The threepenny bit was gold and a nobbin. I hated the new money, still do.
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
Mick Strong
Coventry
5 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 1:04pm  

Hi Kaga, I thought only pre 1948 contained silver? After that I thought they were all nickel. Also have some silver threepenny bits my mum left me. Never seen a gold one?
Mick Strong

Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
scrutiny
coventry
6 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 1:54pm  

Silver coinage had 92.5% silver in them until 1920, then reduced to 50%. In 1947 the silver was replaced with cupro-nickel. Pre 1947 the silver content was worth more than the coin face value. Thumbs up
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
lindatee2002
Virginia USA
7 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 4:50pm  

I worked in a children's book shop in London when the new currency was introduced and we had no training whatsoever. New books came in with the decimal price on the cover, otherwise we had to look up the equivalent cost on a list at the till. We had quite a lot of American customers and we accepted dollars. At one point we were working with one dollar to one pound conversion - something my boss came up with. I think owners did very well. I still have trouble with the pound coin and miss the paper version - much lighter, easier to carry around. I also remember those huge white five pound notes.
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
Slim
Another Coventry kid
8 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 4:59pm  

I was still at school when we went decimal. Does anyone remember the "decimal diddlers"? These were shopkeepers and suchlike that rounded up all their prices where the new decimal coinage did not equate exactly to the old £sd. Our tuck shop was an example. We'd all worked out that the price of a Mars bar should be 3.5p. But they said "that's four"! That added to inflation a bit. For a long time, nobody used the words pence or pennies, as in people's minds that meant the old penny, of which there were 240 to the pound. It might cause confusion. Eventually, people forgot about the old d, and starting using the word pence. Strictly speaking, one hundredth of a pound was never a penny, it's a cent. Something else the government got wrong.
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
Slim
Another Coventry kid
9 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 5:07pm  

On 14th Feb 2021 4:50pm, lindatee2002 said: I still have trouble with the pound coin and miss the paper version - much lighter, easier to carry around. I also remember those huge white five pound notes.
When talking of a cash job, the expression "it's a pound notes job" is still used. I recently heard a bloke complain of being overcharged, and he said "I'll be a sheet down", meaning a pound note. Old habits die hard.
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
lindatee2002
Virginia USA
10 of 20  Sun 14th Feb 2021 9:36pm  

Slim, I remember this being especially egregious when it came to the price of a bag of crisps. What happened to the penny selection almost every sweetshop and newsagent had?
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
Dreamtime
11 of 20  Mon 15th Feb 2021 3:32am  
Off-topic / chat  

Kaga simpson
Peacehaven, East Sussex
12 of 20  Mon 15th Feb 2021 9:28am  

I worked at the factory that changed the tills in shops. I worked out the bonuses of the salesmen that took orders for the machines. They were sky high, made fortunes for a couple of years but the orders collapsed after they had all been changed, and the new machines came in.
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
Slim
Another Coventry kid
13 of 20  Mon 15th Feb 2021 9:59am  

Our till was an old wooden one, with a bell that went DING every time you opened the drawer, and you wrote down stuff on a paper roll, so we didn't need a new till.
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
petunia
Coventry
14 of 20  Mon 15th Feb 2021 12:09pm  

I was working in a supermarket when decimalisation began - we had about two hours training beforehand. For quite a while every item in store had two price stickers on it, one in 'old' money, the other in 'new'. Some of the older customers found it difficult to adjust, they would just open their purse and say to me - take out whatever you need.
Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971
Mick Strong
Coventry
15 of 20  Tue 16th Feb 2021 5:21pm  

Did we do away with pounds (lbs) and ounces at the same time as we changed the currency?
Mick Strong

Memories and Nostalgia - Decimalisation Day, 1971

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