Decimalisation.

[Kremlin Stooge]

I had one of those blue plastic wallets (2), which had one coin of each denomination on the right hand side and blurb on the left, which I carefully kept in a drawer. I was not pleased when my mother, short of change one day, took the coins to pay for something and later replaced them with used coins.

I can quite understand your displeasure.

 

[Ediswan]

Related, does anybody else recall when the French Franc / Pound Sterling exchange rate was so close to 10:1 that cross-channel ferries were prepared to take payment, at that rate, in mixed small change ?

 

[Meglos]

I can still clearly remember the old dear who was interviewed on the London edition of Nationwide on the BBC about decimalisation. She said she wasn't worried as it wouldn't affect her, because she was moving to Kent,

 

[Djgr]

Doubt that Irish coins were ever "legal tender" as such in Anglesey / Liverpool post 1971 "D Day". Not to say that they might not have been accepted for payment of goods by local shopkeepers, but that's a different thing.

Very popular in Mersey Tunnel toll baskets!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Very popular in Mersey Tunnel toll baskets!

That I can well imagine!

Probably also in slot operated ciggie (and confectionery) vending machines as well.

 

[21C101]

It was of course done to facilitate the entry to the EEC and now Brexit is done campaigning to reverse it and bring back pounds shillings and pence needs to start in earnest. The damage to mental arithmetic skills resulting from decimalisation is incalculable.

 

[plugwash]

Channel Islands banknotes not legal tender on the mainland in England, but could always be paid in at the bank / post office. Similarly with Scottish, Northern Ireland and Isle of Man banknotes. Shopkeepers might possibly accept them but not obliged to do so. Channel Islands coins, however, not generally accepted but could invariably be used in vending machines or mixed in with bags of mainland coinage as they effectively weighed the same.

I'm pretty sure most people just look at the overall size/shape/color/texture of coins, not at what is actually printed on them. I know I have found EU and US coins in my wallet despite (at the time) never having been to the US or mainland Europe. I think I may have spotted a channel islands one too.

 

[_toommm_]

A look at all the banknotes we’ve had since decimalisation:

 

[Gloster]

I have found a number of 2 cent (euro) in my change, presumably masquerading as a 1p one, which actually puts me slightly in profit. The oddest was a couple of years ago when I pulled out some change to pay and thought, “Hang on. That’s not the Queen’s head”. It was George VI on a 1943 farthing.

 

[S&CLER]

On holiday in Sri Lanka in 2003, I noticed several people in our party stocking up on Sri Lankan coins that looked and felt practically identical to our (round) pound coins, presumably intending to use them in parking meters, as I suppose they were worth less than £1, though I can't recall what denomination they were and what they were worth in sterling.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

On holiday in Sri Lanka in 2003, I noticed several people in our party stocking up on Sri Lankan coins that looked and felt practically identical to our (round) pound coins, presumably intending to use them in parking meters, as I suppose they were worth less than £1, though I can't recall what denomination they were and what they were worth in sterling.

Sri Lankan 5 rupee coins. Worth about two pence in Sterling, or, potentially, 98p more in a parking meter.

 

[calopez]

When working in the booking office, I used to take great pleasure in accepting, without batting an eyelid, any Scottish, Irish, Channel Islands or Isle of Man banknotes that were presented - quite often to the customer's surprise! They could all simply be paid into the bank (unless a banknote-collecting colleague wanted one), so it wasn't a problem.

Coins were a different matter, as the bank wouldn't take them, so we got pretty good at spotting and rejecting them. And then we got Quickfare machines, which couldn't tell the difference between a 50p piece and a Kenyan 5/- (I think) coin...

 

[PeterC]

Most cash registers at that time had a switch on the back that enabled you to change them from from LSD to Decimal. I remember fiddling with them to see what would happen.

Same with adding machines. As time went on you could put young staff into a panic by secretly flipping the switch

 

[GusB]

It was of course done to facilitate the entry to the EEC and now Brexit is done campaigning to reverse it and bring back pounds shillings and pence needs to start in earnest. The damage to mental arithmetic skills resulting from decimalisation is incalculable.

You may put a smiley at the end of your post, but I can't help but think that you actually mean this.

Mental arithmetic, while still useful in certain circumstances, is more or less obsolete in an age where almost everyone has a calculator in their pocket, thereby allowing their brains to focus on the bigger problems.

But that doesn't suit the views of those who espouse a return to Good Old Victorian Britain.

 

[xotGD]

A few years ago someone raised a petition on the government website to 'Bring back proper money'. It only received about a dozen signatures.

Perhaps now is the time to try again?

 

[Bald Rick]

A few years ago someone raised a petition on the government website to 'Bring back proper money'. It only received about a dozen signatures.

Perhaps now is the time to try again?

It would be quite funny if it got exactly 100 signatures

 

[RichT54]

A few years ago someone raised a petition on the government website to 'Bring back proper money'. It only received about a dozen signatures.

Perhaps now is the time to try again?

Someone already has: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/564233

It currently has 11 signatures and has a deadline of 7 July 2021.

Decimalisation came at the cost of a convenient system for the common citizen. The 240p pound was a Highly Composite Number, which allowed for a multitude of avenues to split it, unlike the 100p.
Returning to £sd will allow for greater convenience, easier sharing, and restore British history.

Decimalisation occured in 1971 where British Currency converted from fractional breakdown of £sd to instead be decimalised like the USD.
Before, a Pound was 240p, a Highly Composite Number, which allowed many avenues for splitting down into lesser amounts; the Pound now is much less flexible.
Equally, fractional coins bypass the 1/3 problem. When you split 100 between 3 you are left with a remaining 1, creating an unfair share. When fractional, all parties can receive the same, 1/3, amount.

The creator of the petition seems highly concerned about the 'unfair' extra 1p you get when you divide exactly £1 by 3, but perhaps he and his 2 friends only buy something if it comes to exactly £1. Many other prices of course would not divide equally by 3 in either currency system.

 

[SHD]

But that’s absurd - unless I am sorely mistaken, there never was a coin or a banknote worth 5s8d or 1/3rd of a pound!

 

[xotGD]

But that’s absurd - unless I am sorely mistaken, there never was a coin or a banknote worth 5s8d or 1/3rd of a pound!

But you could count out three piles of coins to the value of 80d each.

 

[Spamcan81]

Most cash registers at that time had a switch on the back that enabled you to change them from from LSD to Decimal. I remember fiddling with them to see what would happen.

The family business was still using a mechanical NCR cash register on the run up to decimalisation and was still using a mechanical register well into the 1980s. I honestly can't recall if we had the old one converted or got a new one. I assume conversion was possible but that would have involved a lot of changes to the internal gubbins.

Related, does anybody else recall when the French Franc / Pound Sterling exchange rate was so close to 10:1 that cross-channel ferries were prepared to take payment, at that rate, in mixed small change ?

I can recall 14 Francs to the pound sterling.

It was of course done to facilitate the entry to the EEC and now Brexit is done campaigning to reverse it and bring back pounds shillings and pence needs to start in earnest. The damage to mental arithmetic skills resulting from decimalisation is incalculable.

Really? I run my own chip shop and I always add up the prices in my head in spite of my electric till being able to do it for me.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

But that’s absurd - unless I am sorely mistaken, there never was a coin or a banknote worth 5s8d or 1/3rd of a pound!

You are! One third of a pound was actually 6s 8d.

 

[SHD]

Thank you for correcting my arithmetic typo! But was there such a coin or banknote?

You are! One third of a pound was actually 6s 8d.

 

[etr221]

But that’s absurd - unless I am sorely mistaken, there never was a coin or a banknote worth 5s8d or 1/3rd of a pound!

Correction: a third of a pound is 6/8 (six shillings eight pence, or 80d); and there were (gold) coins of that value: the noble (introduced by Edward III in 1344), replaced in 1464 as a half mark coin by the angel - which lasted at that value until 1526. (The mark (13/4, or two thirds of a pound, was widely used in accounts)

There was for far longer the groat, or 4d, (third of a shilling) coin - first issued under Edward I in 1279, in general use until 1855, and subsequently only for Maundy money.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Yes, as @etr221 has just pointed out, it was called the Noble.

There was also a low denomination one third-farthing coin available for a period between 1827 and 1913.

 

[SHD]

Correction: a third of a pound is 6/8 (six shillings eight pence, or 80d); and there were (gold) coins of that value: the noble (introduced by Edward III in 1344), replaced in 1464 as a half mark coin by the angel - which lasted at that value until 1526.

There was for far longer the groat, or 4d, (third of a shilling) coin - first issued under Edward I in 1279, in general use until 1855, and subsequently only for Maundy money.

Oh thank you. An interesting, but not immensely practical solution to solve the extra penny problem of the gentleman who initiated the petition.
(That reminds me of the Monty Python’s auditor sketch!)

 

[steamybrian]

When we changed to the present decimal money in 1971 I kept a selection of old coins in the hope that they would become collectors items. At the time many other people had the same idea and now 50 years later I would struggle to sell them to even get the equivalent money back considering inflation rate, interest, etc..

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Think pre-decimalisation GB silver coins (pre 1947) with actual silver content in them, might still be worth something.

 

[gordonthemoron]

In the early 80s, I worked on the BR Pension Fund computer systems in Darlington. Some of the programs were quite old. One that I rememeber was an Actuarial Valuation program that had been written in 1967, it still had it's pre decimal code that had been bypassed. When it was first written, all monetary values were held in old pence (d) and pounds, shillings and pence were calculated for reporting

 

[Ediswan]

Not that long ago, the local off licence had some Eighty Shilling beer for sale. I asked for two bottles. This completey baffled the assistant. At the time, the bottles were still labelled "80/-". I see this has now been changed.

 

[AntoniC]

The whole thing missed me completely as I was only 5 at the time !