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Decimalisation In 1971

paul stacey said:
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
Click to expand...

So you're an "ex boy" Paul, join the club !

That 17/6 a week was the clue. Mind you, we only got ten bob a week, (that dates me !), the rest of our pay being held in credits. When I went into Man's Service I went on leave with over 80 quid to boost the Brummagem economy.

I've still got my last POSB book, I daren't send it in as I know they'll keep it. It's been stamped in the last places I was in during the last few years of my army service, so it has sentimental value now.
 
Amanda Wright said:
Hi All,
This is sort of on same subject....................
Current data is only available till 2010. In 2010, ​
£226 0s 0d
from 1909 is worth
£18,400.00 using the retail price index£75,400.00 using average earnings

​
Does anybody know what the value of
£226 in 1909 would be now ??
Click to expand...
Try this Wow
 
My brother was shown at school with the new decimal coins and had his photo in the local paper. I can remember changing my savings at the bank and not being happy as it didn't look or feel the same as proper money lol!
I still use imperial measures when I get away with it, have to think to convert it to metric especially for bandage sizes.
We have a box of pre-decimal coins upstairs too.
Sue
 
My brother was shown at school with the new decimal coins and had his photo in the local paper. I can remember changing my savings at the bank and not being happy as it didn't look or feel the same as proper money lol!<BR>I still use imperial measures when I get away with it, have to think to convert it to metric especially for bandage sizes.<BR>We have a box of pre-decimal coins upstairs too.<BR>Sue
 
Coinage is the most insignificant part in my opinion. It was already in tens in NA. More difficult in the UK no doubt with pounds shillings and pence. It's the weights and measuring system that causes the most trouble I suspect and Canada went to the metric weights and measuring system at about that time and although I am now begining to visualise in metric it is only in small amounts like quantities of cold meat and perhaps roasts...milk in litres. We visualise distances in Km. and travel in Km/hr., but I still have to convert to MPG to have some feel for ecconomy. We still use Horsepower as a measure and not KW. Do you say mileage or kilometerage? Will it all be resolved sometime.
 
Come off it Paul! Why was it a confidence trick? The way it was before was so outdated in a modern world. I admit many prices were upped to the next P but thats life. It only had to be carred out once. Then it was over and done with and a good job too.

The thing that niggles me is being forced to convert to metric measurement. As a builder I find it quite handy and useful to be able to use both imperial amd metric measurements.

I have an Italian friend and he asked me which measurement I use and prefer and I told him 'both'. I don't see why kids cannot be taught both as it will do their brains good. By the way, the Italian friend said he uses both measurements. Buying glass is easier in 'old money' sizes because 1/8" is the perfect clearance distance round the frame opening.
 
Construction lumber in NA is still named in inches ie., 2x4 and 2x6 etc., but guess what these items are not the same measurement that they were before metrification. They are a metric size that is...you guessed it...less than the previous inch ones and yet still called 2x4s etc., If you are making an extension to an older house you will have to shim one side of the wall sometimes. Anyway it's done now and I suppose it takes less wood and provides sufficient stiffness and a 2x4 was never actually 2x4 also...still it was more than 38 x 92 or whatever. No one asks for a 38 x 92 stud.
Inches and feet are still used on drawings here and we have anomalies like 'hard metric' or 'soft metric' and horses are still around. A tribute to the man who contrived a system above Hockley Brook and was a major player in putting Birmingham on the map.
 
I was a new cashier at the Birmingham Municipal Bank and working at the Small Heath branch on the Coventry Road. We had to go to work for 4 days from 9am - 9pm at night, converting all the accounts to decimal and counting all the "new" money into the tills. We also had to put up posters and have a ll the leaflets ready to give out to customers about the whole thing.

I find I can use either system equally well, although to this day I can only picture dressmaking materials in yards and yet do the actual seam allowances on a garment in millimetres!
 
That's interesting. I too still work in inches and yards for measuring material, wood, etc. But also interesting that I'm more comfortable with decimalisation than £sd. What was £sd all about? 20 shillings = £1, 21 shillings = a guinea, 10 shillings = ten bob, 12 pennies= one shilling. Doing my head in. Surprised we ever made it out of school with the slightest understanding of money. Viv.
 
I measure in yards, feet and inches still and at work, where we measure in metric, most patients will ask what their height and weight are "in English".
Dad was a carpenter, but he uses both sets of measurements depending on what he is doing, can be very confusing if he asks me to go and get something and I have forgotten to ask whether it is metric or imperial.
Like Viv says, how did we not get confused in the old pounds, shillings and pence!
Sue
 
Oh, I was lucky to survive school and £ s d - I well remember being made to stand at the back of the class as a punishment for getting every single one of my money sums wrong because I forgot that there were 12d in one shilling, although for some bizarre reason I DID remember that there were 20 shillings in £1! Maybe I was already "half decimal" in my head...!

Even more odd that I went on to work for the BMB using £sd and adding up huge ledgers by hand and in your head. You were only allowed to use the electronic adding machines if you couldn't balance your till. Balancing of tills was done every single night and no-one went home until the branch had balanced its books for the day. Also, we could have bank inspectors from head office swoop down on us at any time and demand to balance your till. Head Office sometimes used to send 2 inspectors down to a branch at closing time and they would balance all the tills themselves and none of the staff were allowed home until it was done. All this was to ensure that there was no fraud by cashiers or other employees (such as the Standing Order clerk) who had access to any of the cash.

BMB was a member of the TSB association and was bought out by the TSB; latere the TSB was bought out by Lloyds. I had long left by then and worked for the Inland Revenue Valuation Office in Aylesbury, which was where my husband was moved to at one month's notice. We came back to Birmingham after being in Aylesbury for 4 years, stayed for 10 years and then moved to Scotland 21 years ago. Still have relatives there and visit them at least once per year.
 
Even now I often work out what the cost of an item today would have been in £sd..and you are right Paul, it is horrific...!!
A particular 32.5g (??? I have no idea what weight that is, but I know from the size of the pack it's not a lot) bag of crisps now is 49p...nearly 10 shillings in old money !! Back in 1969 when I was in Junior school, my Mom gave me a 10 shilling note to purchase my still treasured Marie Richardson, Osmiroid fountain pen with an italic nib, which all the pupils had to have in our class...I lost the note out of my saddle bag whilst riding to the shops to buy the pen...I was devastated as Mom had had to save to buy it for me and then had to give me another 10 bob out of the food money so I could have the pen... It felt like I had lost her an absolute fortune :(
I also remember a gallon of petrol being 49p !!!..49p's worth of petrol today would probably equate to a bit of vapour !!!
I always remember the date of Decimal day because it was on my Brothers birthday..
Oddly enough, my Mom moved house last week and while we were having a sort out, I came across a Collins Decimal ready reckoner book, which her old boss had given her in 1971 so that she could learn the new prices in the shop where she worked..we filed it in the bin !!!
Oh and I still work in feet, inches, pints, pounds and ounces..metres etc are totally foreign to me..

How times have changed !!
 
I am just so pleased my dear Nan is not here Lindy, she would have died of shock, £1 3s 4d, for a loaf of bread???, she went mad when it went from 9d to 11d in old money, Ha Ha.
paul
 
I don't think you can blame decimalization for the difference in prices, that's due to inflation. if we were still using £ S D a loaf of bread would probably be £1 3s 4d.

Nick
 
I know what you mean Paul, my Nan would have been the same..Can you imagine being sent down the road for a loaf now with a pocket full of old pennies...have I got it right...£1 3s 4d would have been 280 old pennies !! ...heavy stuff !!

Hi Nick, I know decimalisation isn't to blame for the rise in todays prices, but I believe we did lose out when it changed because everything was "rounded up" to accommodate the new coinage so things did cost more. To me decimalisation kind of trivialised my money..in that 15 shillings was a lot but it's equivalent ..75p seems like nothing now (I know what I'm trying to say but not sure if I'm expressing it correctly)

Lynne
 
lindyloo said:
(I know what I'm trying to say but not sure if I'm expressing it correctly)

Lynne
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, it doesn't seem so much in pence does it?
I believe the minimum wage now is £6, so a person working 30 hours would be on £180 a week, what would your Nan have thought about that sort of money?

Nick
 
Hi Nick, I'm glad that you understood my ramblings :)..you have it exactly.
Regarding the minimum wage..My one Nan would have understood it completely because she worked in money orientated jobs for most of her working life....My other Nan who was a housewife for most of her working life would probably have said "Noooooo..get away" !!!!

Lynne
 
bit late joining in the debate, from Jan 20 th 1971 til March 7th there was a National Strike of Postal Workers, myself included, the decimalisation was bought in on St Valentines Day 14th of Feb; there was a time when a loaf of bread, a pint of milk and a postage stamp were all the same price , sadly not anymore. Bernard ps. talking about wages when I retired in 1995 my basic pay was £149.50 per week, a Postmans basic pay is now £300 per week
 
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Hi Bernard, I don't remember the strike but I was only 12 so it wouldn't have affected me really, but I have always believed Decimal Day to have been on the 15th February..my Brother's birthday..??
Lynne
 
It was certainly was 15th February 1971. I was working at Delta Metals at the time, and we had large laminated posters made with the weights shown in Imperial and the new weights alongside them, these were rolled up into cardboard containers (like large innards of toilet rolls), everyone in the sales office had to help out to get these in the post in time for a large customer base
 
I was at school when it happened and it was quite exciting. But I do remember that price increases in decimal came over as much less than if they'd been in £sp. So thats where many felt they were conned. To me 60p wasnt much but 12/- was lots. Loved the old coinage though which had much more character than the new.

£s.jpg 3p.jpg 6p.jpg halfcrown.jpg
 
I don't know why I remember this, as I haven't smoked for years, but in 1971 a packet of 20 No 6 from the machines at Triplex Safety Glass where I worked was 4/-, when the over-the-counter price was 3/8. After decimalisation the machine price stayed at 20p (4/-) but the over-the-counter price went up to 20p! What a rip-off! A pint of Brew XI was 2/10 at my local, and that went up to 15p along with a public outcry! Still, when I got married in July 1971 my brand new 3-bed semi cost me £3950, just about 4 times my annual salary. A similar house in 2012 would cost around £150000, or about 6 times the average annual salary (according to some figures I recently saw).

It wasn't decimalisation that led to price-increases, believe me - it was the hyper-inflation we were subjected to later in the 1970's. I won't go into it, as it's political!

A bigger rip-off was when Europe turned to the Euro - prices were invariably adjusted upwards.

G
 
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