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Decimalisation In 1971

Frank Parker

https://frankparker.website
I was rummaging through a few old things of mine and I came across the following booklet about decimalisation that I am certain many will remember! Myself I was only a month away from being 5 so I don't personally!

I remember Mom and Dad telling me when I got older that a lot of people felt swindled when it all changed over (even though you could get a lot more for your money then compared to today's prices!). A lot found it confusing too, I know I only had to read the back page and I was confused! LOL Anyway enjoy! :)
 
I read somewhere that if god meant us to use the decimal system there would have been only ten disciples.
Decimalisation goes back long before 1971, the two shilling piece (one tenth of a pound) was the the start of attempst to introduce decimal coinage. I was on estimating in the fifties and we used the decimal system then, it was the only language that a comptometer understood. No calculators then, only slide rules. The decimal system has it's failings, divide 10 0n your calculator by 3, then multiply by 3, you won't get the number you first started with
 
I remember when decimalisation came in 15th February 1971, and prices seem to shoot up. My mother was was then 71 years old never really came to terms with it, she was in poor health and depended on dad, and us, her daughters to fetch the shopping and always converted the prices back to £.s.d.
 
hi all. i had just started my 1st job when the new money came in. i was confused then and i still am lol.......and i still go by pounds and ounces and feet and inches lol again

wales.
 
I hated the change over, and like you I still use pounds and ounces, and feet and inches. I bought a set of old coins to show to my grandchildren, they are all 1966.
 
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Good thing too, Wales, and you can't get prosecuted for it either! Time some of the newspaper reporters were reminded that distances and heights are still officially Imperial. Bring back proper hills as well - now they are in % I have to wait 'til I get there for a look and decide how steep it is.
Mike
 
I worked at the Birmingham Co-operative Society at the time of decimalisation, and I was one of the people chosen to re-educate the sales assistants in the department store in Birmingham city centre, it was easy, but a lot of people were just not confident with it, like some of the other postings, although I try to force myself to measure in metric I still find myself having to revert back to old English to "picture" a measurement in my minds eye.
regards Chris B
 
I remember travelling to and from work on the bus and passengers just

held out a handful of coins on the first day for the conductor to take

whatever they wanted.
 
I remember when decimalisation came in 15th February 1971, and prices seem to shoot up. My mother was was then 71 years old never really came to terms with it, she was in poor health and depended on dad, and us, her daughters to fetch the shopping and always converted the prices back to £.s.d.

Too right prices went up sylvia it to me was one of the biggest cons of my lifetime, the other being going metric. I think those of us of a certain age still convert back to old money subconsciously.
 
I was working in a hairdressers in Clarence Road Four Oaks and we were trained with the "new" money I still found it difficult though!
 
Coincidentally, just been looking through a pile of old coins my wife has 'inherited'

Who else rmrmbers running for a bus, rattling with a few bobs worth of copper weighing your jeans down ? Nostalgias nice, but those old coins sure were big and heavy.

As for the two bob coin being the start of decimal currency - I can remember some of the older ones being Florin's, could be wrong, but surely the Florin goes back donkeys years, like the Groat.
 
Yeah, the coins did not need to be so large did they. The size of a penny was silly. A cent in NA (about to be dropped) is about the size of a sixpenny piece and so is a dime. A quarter...25 cents...is a bit smaller than a shilling I think. In other words pretty much all of usual coinage is smaller than back when, in UK. I suppose that you have to start somewhere but still...I suppose that when a penny would have bought something the size may have mattered.
I hope coinage stays around though but think that less size is better, consistant with provisions being made for visually handicapped people to be catered for with touch indicators. Maybe that is the main design requirement.
 
My first wife worked in a bank when we went decimal.

All the coins were delivered in small sealed cellophane "packs" of 100 coins each.

I got three packs of these coins the day we went decimal, a pack of half penny, a pack of penny, and a pack of two penny (I paid for them of course).

I STILL have them in their sealed cellophane packs, and they have never been opened and never been touched by human hand.

Not that I would sell them, but are they worth anything (apart from face value of course)
 
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