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Decimalisation In 1971

Great coins Ray! I don't remember a Crown. I suppose that would have been 5/- would it if half a crown was 2/6d ? Viv.
 
Ah.... That explains it Ray, thought I'd never seen a five bob piece. Looking at your set of coins and trying to convert them to decimal equivalents made me realise what a performance £ s d was. Yes Frothblower, I completely agree with you how much easier decimalisation made all this. Why on earth did we have a system that had (now where's that thinking cap):
12 pence per shilling
2 sixpencies in a shilling
20 shillings in a pound
21 shillings in a guinea .........Not to mention the florins, the half- crowns and the ten bob notes! No wonder I was rubbish at maths at school. Viv
 
Decimalisation,brought a lot of problems,the cost of living went up quite a lot.The continentals were confused because they worked by the dozen and the gross (144) which suited trade with our currency.Working for an American firm,(who hate decimalisation)was very difficult,they used blueprints that contained both metrification and imperial measure.
My favourite coin was always half a crown,it was often called "lift the latch money" the price of 2 pints in the pub.
 
Bought me a Fry's Chocolate cream this morning - 70p !!!!! never in my wildest dreams did I ever see my favourite chocolate bar costing 14 bob. Must be getting like my grandparents who could remember pre World War I prices compared with the prices when we went decimal lol.
 
Hi Mike I do that convert back all the time, especially sweets, and say things like, you could have got two days shopping for that
 
Mike
Afraid it is like me remembering my times behind the bar, and selling 1 pt best bitter at 1s 10d (about 9p). Mike
 
motorman-mike said:
Bought me a Fry's Chocolate cream this morning - 70p !!!!! never in my wildest dreams did I ever see my favourite chocolate bar costing 14 bob. Must be getting like my grandparents who could remember pre World War I prices compared with the prices when we went decimal lol.
Click to expand...

Don't be buying a Magnum ice choc bar than that will cost you 30 bob
 
It would be interesting to know where prices would be today had decimilisation not took place. When I was a conductor on the old Midland Red people relly complained and many walked a stage when fares went up by 1d on a fare stage. Fares today go up by the decimal equivalent of many shillings at a time and people hardly moan at all. We have become conditioned to it with less and less of the population knowing or remembering (and many disheartened by remembering) pre decimal currency and low price rises.. For Brits there really was nothing complicated about £.s.d because we were taught it and used it all the time. It's only complicated to those who never used it as such.
 
the people of this great nation have been subjected to some horrific con tricks by the ruling class's over the last 1000 yrs or so but decimalisation of our once unique monitary system must rank as the worst of all.
 
This seems to be a thread concerned with money. As I see no threads dealing with banks or similar I will post here.
[/I
Until recent times, when everyone has so much money they need bank accounts and credit cards, the usual arrangement for many folks seemed to be the Post Office Savings Account. I think I still have a book somewhere, just with a few shillings still in it.

I wonder how many other Forum Members still have these books, generally issued at a specific Post Office, usually one close to ones home address. I think it was a good system: small withdrawals on demand at most Post Offices, open at better hours usually than banks and of course NO overdraft facilities enabling people to live within their means and avoid the heartbreak of a visit from the bailiffs.
 
When I was a child we had the Birmingham Municipal Bank which was a "working mans" bank. I can
remember my wife having an account with them, she used the branch at the Valley in Billesley.
Didnt they get taken over by the TSB, Bernard
 
On the same subject we did of course have The National Giro Bank, started in 1968 when Tony Benn was Postmaster General! This was sold off for peanuts by Mrs T. Bernard
 
Radiorails said:
This seems to be a thread concerned with money. As I see no threads dealing with banks or similar I will post here.
[/I
Until recent times, when everyone has so much money they need bank accounts and credit cards, the usual arrangement for many folks seemed to be the Post Office Savings Account. I think I still have a book somewhere, just with a few shillings still in it.

I wonder how many other Forum Members still have these books, generally issued at a specific Post Office, usually one close to ones home address. I think it was a good system: small withdrawals on demand at most Post Offices, open at better hours usually than banks and of course NO overdraft facilities enabling people to live within their means and avoid the heartbreak of a visit from the bailiffs.
Click to expand...

Hi Alan I used the post office for saving from a very early age, with stamps that you put in a little book, do you remember them, and later on when I grew up yes I had a post office savings account until it was stopped a few years ago. And I still have the book
 
When I first joined the army every recruit had a POSB called " posby" (post office savings book) given to him, but these were kept by the paymaster not the individual. I recieved the princely sum of £1 17s 6d per week of which £1 was compulsorly paid into the posby, I lived on 17/6 a week unbelievable now, and once a year usually on block leave you could draw up to 75% of the total in our book, absolutley fabulous idea. I remember the first time it happened I had £30 quid I had never handled a £10 note in my life aged 15yrs, I felt like Rockafella, but I had no debt.
paul
 
Decimalisation happened 11 and a half years before I was born.

Wouldn't even understand pre 1971 coins. These days low change is too low for me, have no use for 1p or 2p coins. Why set things at say £1.99 or £3.99 etc, to get 1p change. Why not round it up (probably for VAT).

Anyway was sorting out my change and I found and old 1971 2p and one from 1979. Both said New Pence on them.






Suprised that coins from 40 and 32 years ago are still in circulation after all this time!
 
Yes ell the very small change, 1p and 2p, do seem a bit pointless but there's an old saying "if you look after the pennies, the pennies will look after the pounds". I know when I collect up my small change together and take it to the change machine it always surprises me how much I could be throwing away. Viv.
 
It does way heavy in your purse, but if you pop it in a tin, or something its surprising how quickly it mounts up.
 
I often think about the nicknames we used for money before decimalisation such as...

ha'penny, tuppence, thruppence, a tanner, a bob, two bob, half a crown, ten bob note and in the 'posh' shops guineas.

Now its only 'pees', although the old term 'quid' for a pound is still used.

In a chat the other day we wondered how we would share out £17pounds, 11shillings, and six and half pennies between 3 people - long division in old money
I could do it when I was young.

oldmohawk
 
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