i attended the infant school between 1945 - 1947. I never realized what such smart kids we were in those days. I seem to remember that before you wandered down the road to Miss Fry's Junior School, you knew how to add, and sometimes, multiply pounds, shillings and pence. In modern schools today youngsters in Junior/Infant Schools are taught the decimal system which really only requires you be capable of counting to ten (or to a base 10). In my days, (doesn't that sound familiar kids) we had to count in numerous base systems. Using base 2 to count our halfpennies, base 4 for farthings, base 12 to convert our pennies to shillings and base 20 if you wanted to get your shillings to pounds.
I must say however, in a real life situation in and around my neighborhood, if you found a threepenny bit in your pocket you would go to the nearest sweet shop, buy a bag of broken biscuits, scoff the lot, and then you wouldn't have to worry about upward conversion anyway.
I must say however, in a real life situation in and around my neighborhood, if you found a threepenny bit in your pocket you would go to the nearest sweet shop, buy a bag of broken biscuits, scoff the lot, and then you wouldn't have to worry about upward conversion anyway.