1971 - the day Britain went Decimal
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- čas přidán 25. 11. 2019
- Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and in Ireland was on 15 February 1971, the day on which each country decimalised its respective currency of pounds, shillings, and pence. In the United Kingdom, the British pound was made up of 20 shillings, each of which was made up of 12 pence, a total of 240 pence. With the decimalisation, the pound kept its old value and name, and the only changes were in relation to the subunits. The shilling was abolished, and the pound was subdivided into 100 "new pence" (abbreviated "p"), each of which was worth 2.4 "old pence" (which were abbreviated "d"). In Ireland, the Irish pound had a similar £sd currency structure and similar changes took place.
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#DecimalDay
I had a part-time job in 1979 and older customers would still ask me how much something was in old money, but I hadn't a clue. To me, pounds, shillings and pence seems bizarre and I cannot fathom it at all.
It's easy and that answer don't mix lol
@Gary Dodgson
What about florin, tanner, ha'penny, farthing?
Cigmorfil farthings were phased out in 1960
there were 4 farthings in 1 penny,i,ve had the odd farthing given to me in change,even in 2020,(cos its the same size has our new penny),which i didn,t mind,has i just kept it,oh & our 2p is the same size as the old 1/2d,which i,ve had in my change too
It might have been easier for them if the originally proposed decimal scheme had been used: £1 = 10 shillings 1 shilling = 10 pence.
I was at Uni with a guy whose nickname was ‘Tanner’. When I asked why he had that name I was told that it was because ‘ He wasn’t the full shilling’.
Perhaps he worked in a leather processing plant?
@Jerome O'Mara mmmm. Nice speling.
I'm the one who tells the jokes.
Lol....thats a good story Brendan👍😊👍
The term not quite the full shilling meant something not quite right upstairs, but a tanner was a sixpenny piece, two of which equalled a shilling.
There's still a wealth of never to be spent old money coinage lurking deep in the pockets of men from Aberdeen and Yorkshire.
for anyone wondering, the man above me didnt correct Yorkshires spelling because the latin alphabet doesn't have the letters to do that.
In parts of Yorkshire they still use groats.
Gilgamesh Of Uruk I can verify that in parts of Norfolk we still use bartering at a form of currency.
@@robsmithracing And why not? It worked in rural Spain when their economy collapsed a few years ago.
Gilgamesh Of Uruk it still does work well. For instance I own a small chicken farm business, whenever I need mealworms for them I pop to the fishing shop and he gets paid in eggs which was our agreement.
Up until his death in 2013 my dad used to write to our MP every year and request that we return to imperial currency.
😂
"Why do we have to learn about the metric system in school?"
"Lots of reasons. For one, practically every other country in the world uses it."
"So, why can't every other country go back to the old way?"
your dad is a local hero
Since when does a division of 12 denarios to a shilling equate to imperial?
Good man
"In general, elderly people had much more difficulty adapting, and many of them spontaneously exploded in the street."
You’re not supposed to tighten up the incontinence pads _that_ much ...
No, that was CoViD-71
@Zander Liam hey, I've been watching on the sock puppet zone. It's a-may-zing!! Try it whilst juggling alligators - it's even better!
I realize it is pretty randomly asking but does anyone know of a good website to stream newly released tv shows online ?
@Gerald Wesley thanks, I went there and it seems like a nice service :D Appreciate it!
As a coin collector, that scene in which they were melting old coinage was downright horrifying...
It reminds me of what happened when they found a ship sunk early in World War II which had been carrying millions of pounds value of silver from India. This was only a few years ago. Every single coin on that ship was collectible. The government said they were going to sell them--- after they melted them all down.
I truly do think that those crowns and half crowns from the Victorian era were among the prettiest coins you can come across even today.
I have to agree, aesthetically they were brilliant, but because the bullion value of silver (sterling .925 pure) meant the coin had intrinsic value, so didn't have to be backed by gold, even today, where have no gold or sterling standard needed to back up the coins, UK coins are much more pleasing than most other currencies, even the euro coins whereby the obverse is common and the reverse is unique, thus plenty of variety, the UK coins are more pleasing.
An act of mass cultural vandalism comitted by Marxists if you ask me
@Baron Will a few good sets are good for historical purposes but if the nostalgic had his way we would have a lot of practical/recyclable metals pulled out of use and in a finite resource world that is not so practical (though i'm sure some poop is just hoarding it in a bank vault anyway...)
I cry when I see coins get melted its art and shouldn’t be melted
Oasis4life 01 There isn’t any choice, they have to be melted- if we never melted down old coins, then it would have the exact same outcome as printing money.
I was 6 when decimal currency came in. I remember my mum buying me a new Matchbox car on that day with the new coinage! Also in 1971 the new UK electric flex colours had been introduced and my grandad showing me the old colours (red for line, black for neutral and green for earth)and the new ones (brown, blue and green/yellow) and then showing me how to wire a plug (for safety on an old round pin plug not the square pin ones fitted to the house of course) starting my fascination with all things electrical. Vivid memories, even now...
And as any electrician will tell you you can still find cables in both systems for new installations - thankfully the American flex system with a red earth seem to be extinct (it is now black active, white neutral and green earth).
Why did the UK decide to change the colors ours of the wires?
@@thihal123 I think a primary consideration was to make the earth (ground) wire easily identifiable even if you were color-blind.
@@thihal123 European standards - all portable appliances had to immediately comply - because they might be carried country to country.
@@dougf94912 Earth wires outside the US are green with a yellow tracer (or occasionally yellow with a green trace if you are Chinese...) Using yellow for phase wiring was banned at the same time and all three phase cables changed to Red White Blue from Red Yellow Blue.
The rest of Europe had a similar kind of switch when switching from their local currency to the Euro. Some (mostly older) people kept converting back to the old currency in their heads for years to understand how expensive something was.
I still convert back, because it sounds way more expensive, and makes me more aware before i buy things.
In France EVEN now, many people think in 'vieille francs'. That's old francs, 1000 of which made a new franc. I still remember being asked for 1200 francs for a bottle of coke and nearly fainting. Similarly, 'un million' meant a thousand francs or about 100 quid.
Some places, you don't have to go too rural to find old money being spent. France is rife with it, but it works out for them because it was about 10 francs to the Euro, so conversion's easy.
@@HenryGK not those old francs. Those are new francs. There were 1000 old francs in a new franc. I believe the revaluation was in 1952.
@@RodFleming-World We've only dropped double pricing (francs &euros) like 2 years ago
I am rather proud of the fact I was part of 'Decimal Day'. I worked for NCR and we had been converting adding machines and accounting machines to a 'half way stage' for months. I even did at least one 'Hundred Class' cash register (the classic 'till' with the pop up indication and press down keys) conversion, though that wasn't my 'division'. I seem to remember working pretty much all night, going round to customers and completing the conversion. The final actions of the conversion meant the machine could never be converted back and now worked as a full, decimal, keyboard. Heady days.
@Gary Dodgson I've got no evidence, except a generally held perception, that no-one had ever heard of 'inflation' until after decimalisation in 1971. I wonder if there is documentary evidence somewhere?
I know what you mean, my uncle was converting petrol pumps, he could barely contain his excitement. Had to be prescribed heavy downers as I recall.
Patrolling the mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
South Africa went decimal in 1961 but in the 1990s we were still calling public telephones the "tickey box" - tickey being the erstwhile 3-penny coin. The country went completely metric in 1971. I was born in 1967 so never learned the old.units. I live in America now and I find these ounces and cups maddening
U.S. was supposed to convert to Metric stating in the early 80's I believe signed under Carter, but then as soon as Ronald Reagan came in, that got axed quickly.. I remember in first and second grade we were learning about metric, they had rulers and cubes and other items to show the volume of 100 grams etc. Interesting stuff, I'm sure that all got thrown away, or lost in storage. I didn't encounter metric again until science class in middle school and high school. But for some stupid reason we would do everything in metric, and then convert everything over to imperial for the answer.. It was maddening as you say. I never understood what the point of doing that when all science is in metric. I never understood why they didn't just complete the metric conversion, being every industry has to work in metric, especially auto industry etc.. We could have kept MPH for roadways, like the UK kept, but convert the rest over to metric. On certain freeways they had kilometre metric signs put up to give the public an idea of distance, I remember them often at round numbers like "100km to Chicago" and the other nearby cities listed below that were closer etc. Also you will still see the old metric signs in the southwest often within about 100km of Mexico on major freeways. However a lot of them have more recently been removed.
You still have the right to go back to South Africa.
@@marcusdamberger The US made the transition to the metric system voluntary and not mandatory, which is why it failed. The US is currently making the wearing of facemasks voluntary and not mandatory, which is why its number of COVID-19 cases have skyrocketed.
@@SayAhh Indeed it has, making both the conversion to Metric and worsening the economic impact COVID-19 has much much harder than it should have been. Instead of doing one big push in both cases, and going through the initial pain but without having to do it over and over again like we seem to love doing. If we had done the metric conversion totally, my Generation X and below would be fully converted, and only people older than 55 would still be grumbling about the conversion. Yes we would still have legacy Imperial system stuff to deal with from time to time, i.e old classic cars etc. But that is understood when you deal with anything old, be it cars or electronics. Heck no one says 60 Cycles, everyone says 60 Hertz now. Only WWII vets and older remember that on stuff. You see it on the back of old electronics labels, but again, its antiques.
I suspect the "savings" and "burden" that the Reagan administration touted as beneficial to businesses in dropping the conversion, has only costed more than it saved over time as the rest of the world converted over while the U.S. held back. By the way, I did't know it was voluntary, to me it seemed like it was being pushed with the classwork and freeway signs etc. I wonder if there was any funding for schools and governments to start to implement metric. I suspect there must have been some grants. After all, who paid for those freeway signs if it was voluntary, would states have even put them up without some assistance? I think not.
But good point on the whole voluntary thing, leaving it to people to have "personal responsibility" is clearly not working with this virus. A lot of people who love to tout "personal responsibility", love to point it out to others, but appear to be the kind of crowd of people who refuse on grounds of "civil rights being infringed upon"..
@@marcusdamberger
czcams.com/video/1TV6JFxMEcI/video.html
Check out the 2:53 mark. At the 3:14 mark is shows a document that says it would be voluntary.
I have to admit I was waiting to hear how it became a debacle, but, damn, that sounded like a very smooth and well thought out transition. I was not expecting that.
Oh yes, just like the conversion from F° to C° in the weather forecast, and to metric in Ireland.
It might not have been a debacle but it was a huge con. The pound didn't maintain the same value and instead of stuff going up in small amounts it went up in leaps and bounds. I was only 6 but mum could convert back and forth and even nan said it would be a huge con.
@@johnbower7452 So you think the decimal system was the only possible explanation for the value of the pound dropping.
@@scottlarson1548 Funny how most of this inflation (all down to decimalisation) happens post-1974, three years after Decimal Day. Nothing to do with oil, no sir, all to do with conning corner shopkeepers rounding the price of a 4d chocolate bar up to 2p.
@@CA-ee1et HA HA HA! Yes, the soaring prices of oil in the 1970's couldn't *possibly* have had anything to do with inflation! Go to bed, old man!
I was born in 1963. In the last day of the old penny, I bought a mars bar & it cost 4d. Went up to 3p on decimal day !
Anyone remember the sayings to help you remember the differences.
1, two & a quarter pounds of jam, weighs about a kilogram
2, a metre measures 3 foot 3. It's longer than a yard you see.
3, a litre of water's, a pint & 3/4.
Still use these now.
Nice mnemonics! Would've made learning metric in school (in the US) easier than the dry stuff we got. I eventually learned (enough) years later, simply from practical use; I know that 25mm (2.5 cm) is about an inch because of scale miniatures used in wargaming. =^[.]^=
Terrible how they forced this nonsense on us all.
@Iain Botham think I made a boo boo. It was pink panther chemical pink candy bars. (If you remember them)
This virus is punishment on humanity for increasing the price of Mars bars while decreaseing the size
Mars bars were 3p a piece back in 1963?
I was a 10 years old in 1971 and was a keen coin collector. Collecting coins before decimal day was exciting because you could possibly find a coin in your change that was over 100 years old or a coin that was almost pure silver. These old coins were like a link to an earlier time but after decimalization coin collecting was never the same and I have to this day never collected UK decimal coins. However I have never lost my love for the pre-decimal coins and have continued to collect them all of my life.
Mole Catcher - Exactly, Victorian pennies in your change. It was pretty amazing. Even more amazing was seeing Victorian pennies in near mint condition (you’d never find those in your change, had to be a ‘proper’ coin collector). Those portraits were stupendous. I look today at the reverse of the new 5p coins and coppers and almost cry at the uncouth barbarism of the design.
In the Euro zone, after adopting the Euro it’s become very boring. Before, if you visited, for example Italy, you could bring some lires and if you went to Germany you could get marks, but now there’s only Euros everywhere which have very plain designs. The good thing it has is that you can get coins in your change that are from very different places, like a Lituanian coin if you live in Spain
I was 10 years old, working class and widely and justifiably considered to be as thick as a plonkers plank.
However, i can still add up in old money.
It is odd how quickly we can learn something when we are self motivated to learn.
Brings back great memories of the early 70s.
The best comment at the time about the confusion over changeover was something like
'they should have waiting until all the old people had gone'.
This video prompted me to find out when the Netherlands decimalized their currency. Turns out it was 1817, after getting rid of the French. Quite a gap there.
*G E D E C I M A L I S E E R D*
Then Britain got the Euro*, and then it got rid of the Euro again in the early 90s :)
@@wandaperi haha
@@brazeiar9672 not really the Euro but yeah..
@@pierrethetrex6106 eh
I remember decimalisation as a kid - as a 4 year old I was most annoyed that instead of the magic roundabout before the news we had to watch the decimalisation is coming public info film instead
luviskol - “Time for bed!” (Said Zebedee).
Decimalization and metric units certainly made arithmetic a lot easier. I remember doing sums in shillings and pence, pounds and ounces, inches and feet, etc.
Not if you're using fractions.
What's a £91 meal split evenly between 3 people? £30.33333... each in decimal, but exactly £30 8/6 each in old money...
@@cigmorfil4101 £91 split between 2 people would be exactly £45.50 each.
Or did you mean to write _3_ people?
@@cigmorfil4101 You broke math there! The irony...
@@EmuAGR
Typo of phone - it should have been 3.
Interestingly. Division is easier in units of 12 - where you can divide by 1,2,3,4,6,12 rather than units of 10 where you end up with fractions unless you are dividing by 1,2,5,10. So I find shillings and feet much easier.
I remember the Beano went from 2D to 2p overnight - I was outraged!
That's weird because I vividly remember the Beano costing 3d in 1964 - it was a quarter of my pocket money.
240%
It was 2d from its launch in July 1938 until the 8th October 1960 edition, 3d from the 15th October 1960 edition until the 16th March 1968 edition, and 4d from the 23rd March 1968 edition until the 13th February 1971 edition. From the 20th February 1971 edition it became 2p.at which price it remained until 29th June 1974.
@@MrDannyDetail ooooh
@@MrDannyDetail yea...4d to 2p sounds plausible since 4d is 1.66667p. 2d to 2p is a huge jump
I was 12 when this happened ... I remember being taken shopping with Mum and Gran so they had someone to translate the prices : ). And yes, a lot of businesses used it as an opportunity to increase prices.
As I child, I always though it unfair than prior to D-Day when we visited the seaside, I would be given 10/- to spend on the penny coin machines. I would get 120 plays and the coins would last ages. My first visit to the seaside after D-Day I was given 50p as usual (10/-), but now only got 50 plays, and those coins would disappear in less than half the time. Some penny arcades used the old pennies, but on a one to one exchange rate (i.e. 50 coins rather than 120). Ah the memories!
I remember an arcade on the seafront at Margate that had machines that took the new half new pence coin, thus you got 100 plays for 50p, equivalent to the old 10/-. Still not as good as the 120 you got before but much better than only 50 plays if the machines you played were 1p a go. Mind you it has to be remembered that if you came out winning every 1p you won was worth 2.4 times an old 1d penny so it had more buying power. For example a 5d ice lolly or chocolate bar would only cost 2p in the new money.
@Lisa MacGregor Sadly, as now, there were always conning bastards out there ready to rob you of your last penny!
@Lisa MacGregor I was a cupla months short of my 16th birthday when £sd change to £p. I remember D day so well. Being in the final year of secondary school we were allowed out at lunchtime. At a local shop I bought some sweets with the new money for the first time. My mate bought 10 Players Number 6 cigarettes. Different days !!!.
I can remember in the 70s that many of the 5p pieces in circulation were actually old shillings that were re purposed . The mathematical gymnastics involved in working out the old currency transactions were mind blowing - decimalisation just made sense .
Well Said!.
When it comes to giving or receiving a change, both imperial currency and decimal currency are easy to compute.
With imperial currency, you only need to remember 20 and 12. There are 20 shillings in a pound and there are 12 pence in a shilling.
If the total amount bought costs £23 and the money given by the customer is £50, the change is £27.
If the total amount bought costs £23/8/- and the money given by the customer is £50, the change is £26/12/- since there are 20 shillings in a pound.
If the total amount bought costs £23/8/5 and the money given by the customer is £50, the change is £26/11/7 since there are 12 pence in a shilling.
However, when it comes to addition of prices, decimal currency is easier to compute because you don't need to worry about not mastering the 12 x table. American children were taught in school to memorize only up to 10 x table while British children need to memorize up to 12 x table. Under the decimal currency, if let's say the total amount of pence is 175, you simply have to put the total amount of pence as "75" and carry over the "1" in the pounds column and then add it to the total amount of pounds. Under the imperial currency, if the total amount of old pence is 175, you need to think how many shillings can be extracted from 175 before you can carry over to the shillings column and put the remainder as the number of pence (175=14/7). However, when it comes to selling, the imperial currency is more effective and useful than the decimal currency because 240 is a highly composite number. A highly composite number is a positive integer with more divisors than any smaller positive integer has. 240 is listed as a highly composite number. 100 is not in the list.
A great summary with plenty of points I never even knew.
I left the UK soon after decimalization and went back on vacation for the first time in 1986. I got on a ferry at Calais and bought a drink, the change I revived from a 10 pound note included pound coins and 20ps none of which I had ever seen before.
Being an old git, I was at school during the changeover, and can still convert today.
Me, too. But I've never understood why 4/6 still seems a much larger sum of money than 22p. Ten bob is a fortune, whereas 50p is nothing.
£ 5.62 do it please
@@IrisGalaxis That is £5 12s 5d to the nearest 1d. An exact conversion isn't possible.
@@mandolinic Yeah I thought it might be so
@@mandolinic Are you a shopkeeper? I only ask because I noticed you rounded the amount up!
The day when the price of everything was rounded UP!
still salty?
One of the biggest rip-offs the British people ever had to endure. The pub I worked in put a pint of Guinness up from 3/4d to 20NP (4 shillings). The regulars refused to pay, voting with their feet, and the pub tenant quickly reverted to the old price!
Yes diesel,the shop I worked in ,just changed a d for a p. Although it was fifty years ago we have never recovered,just keep on the price rise pay rise merry go round!
@@dieselfan7406 inflation eclipsed any rounding up within MONTHS
@@Nickelodeon81 Very true.
I remember the jingles being sung on TV all the time
'Ten tens make a pound, 100 new pence in a pound' etc.
'One pound is a hundred new pennies, a hundred new pence make a pound'.....the programmes were called Decimal Five.
I used to repair the cash registers you showed at the start , the 2nd one is a sweda 46, the rolls Royce of cash registers
Just imagine the engineering involved to provide change for coin operated vending machines in the days of pound-shilling-pence. And all of it mechanical.
National Cash Register (NCR) pretty widespread.
Pluggit1953 yes the first one a 21 class , but I was talking about the 2nd one ... sweda 46
Can u repair my cash register...in my mind...I get hold of some cash but it never quite registers
"How much is this in old money" ... same here since 19 years now with the Euro...
It's getting really annoying now.
A while ago someone told me that "Everything is getting more expensiv and back than it would have only cost like 50 Schilling (old Austrian currency)"
And I was like: "And how much would that be in Euros?"
@@conorstapleton3183 haha, yes but it is true, that everything gets more and more expensive. But that is a problem that exists from the first moment of the world hehe
The expression is used now for any measurement. For instance you might tell someone the length of something is 25 cm. and they would reply "How much is that in old money?", meaning inches. Older people who grew up with the old measures are most likely to say that.
It happens with weights too - when I’m told I weigh 130 Kg I ask what’s that in old money and am told it’s 20 and half stones, “ah yes, I could do with losing some weight....”.
@@arwelp this sounds downright medieval lmao "stones" ....
People around my age, born in 1963, were lucky in some ways. We learnt about both currencies, imperial and metric measurement. My most abiding memories were the 1969 ‘hands’ 50p and the loss of tanners and thrupenny bits. This caused some concern as they were secreted in our school Xmas pudding.
I was born in '64 in the U.S. and I wish I could say the same about 'lucky' ! I remember all the instruction in both Imperial and Metric, but the teachers were so sure we wouldn't need Imperial, they didn't really emphasize it. In 2020, I can easily recite all Metric measurements, but not using them, they don't 'mean' anything to me. (except 2 liters for sodas). Conversely, although I know weight and temperature measurement in Imperial, when it comes liquid measurement..ounces to pints to gallons..forget it! I work in a liquor shop, and although all sizes of the products are in Metric, customers never ask for a 200 ml bottle of vodka..it's a half pint..nor a 750 ml..it's a 'fifth'. ..it's crazy!
I worked in a stamp shop and they brought out 12 postage stamps to celebrate D day in the new currency. A first day cover was issued by the post office so me and a couple of others spent the entire day sticking each stamp (after licking it) onto dozens of covers. They had to be in two perfect lines and in order. Dozens of covers each with 12 stamps on. That took some licking!!
I remember it as the day the price of goods in shops went up.
That's what happened in all countries with accepted euro. A smart way to hide devaluation of savings and higher prices. And they are determined to print more and more euros, because it totally can't backfire.
0:37 I remember having one of those Decimal Day coin holders. I don't know what happened to it, probably the 5 year old me decided that 18.5p of sweets was more worthwhile.
Hhhhhfft
An excellent nostalgic video. I remember the historical day of 15th February very well, the changeover was quite strange and yet exciting. I recall that the New One and Half penny coins to the dismay of some pub and club landlords were able to operate the old style gaming fruit machines. Some shop keepers were more than guilty of exploiting the changeover by slightly increasing the prices of their goods.
Overnight the history which was in our coinage vanished, and was replaced with these shiny new pieces which we were unfamiliar with. It was the biggest change in copper coinage since 1860 when the very heavy large and copper coins were replaced with much smaller ones.
There were those who simply didn't like change and thought that the whole thing was a bad idea, but the new decimal system was much simpler
I hope that the many young viewers will learn a lot from watching this most interesting video, I certainly re-learned a lot.
The wizarding world never did decimalise: "Wizarding money comes in three denominations: bronze Knuts, silver Sickles, and golden Galleons. There are 29 Knuts in one Sickle, and 17 Sickles make up a Galleon."
Reminds me of one of my teacher's jokes at school. Christopher Columbus' ship was called the Pinto, and he used to joke that there were 8 pintos to a galleon.
Quality trolling, right there.
That almost sounds American
You missed one. There are 29 Knuts to a Sickle, 17 Sickles to the Galeon, and 43 Galleons in a Bitcoin.
Is Wizarding a socialist republic? " Sickle coin" 😛
I've still got a pencil from back then that has a conversion chart on it. There were also 'Decimeters', i.e. little plastic devices that converted the currency by turning two plastic cogs to show the figure in a display window. The change all went smoothly, and six year old me found it easy, as did everyone else I knew.
I was in my final year at secondary school when decimal currency day happened. I still remember the "old" money very clearly. All the old coins had plenty of nicknames and slang terms. In all the nearly 50 years that have elapsed since I can't think of any widely accepted slang terms for the decimal coins except "Tiddler" for the now discontinued half new penny coin.
Trevor Dance I do remember my Dad calling 10p a 2 bob bit.
@@stuartleckie Yes, but a two bob bit stems from the days when 2 shillings was called 2 bob. This amount was an exact equivalent to 10 new pence in decimal money and a 2/- coin served as a 10p coin for many years, so 2 bob for 10 new pence was a carry over from the old £sd money, not a new slang expression.
Trevor Dance ah ok. You mean nicknames for coins post decimalization.
I moved to Canada about 20 years ago, they are not known for using much slang here, yet most folks call the 1 dollar coin the Loony, and the 2 dollar coin the Toonie.
I can remember up until the 80’s many people (including myself) call the 50p a Ten-Bob bit. As an aside, some wiseguys at my school reckoned that you could file a defunct Half-crown down to the shape of a 50p and use them in the change machines in the amusement arcades - 12.5p in, 5x10p out.
@@MorgoUK Many people used to call five shillings, 5/- "a dollar". (that amount also being known as a Crown) (25p). I think that stems from the days when there were four US Dollars to the pound just as there were four lots of 5/- to the pound. It then followed that the coin worth an eigth of a pound ie 2/6 (12.5p) was called half a crown, or in slang "half a dollar". 0ther slang terms for the amount of two shillings and sixpence were "two and a kick" or "two and a tanner", a tanner being sixpence or 6d (2.5p)
A really interesting documentary, on something I knew that had happened but was ignorant on. (while I was living in West Germany as a kid) I'm 53 years old now!
I remember Decimal Day very well. My eldest daughter was born on that day so I have a permanent reminder of the date - good for quizzes!
I was born 18th February 1971 (3 days after D Day) and my parents said that as a new born baby people were giving them old and new money congratulating them.My Mum also told me that a lot of independent shop owners were extremely unfair to elderly people.The old ones would just stick out their hand with the new money in it and rely on the shop owner to take out the correct amount when paying.My mum said both herself and my dad lost count helping out the elderly while chastising the shop owners for being dishonest.
I was a small child at the time, and remember the old silver sixpence being in circulation for a while after d-day, valued at 2 1/2p.
It lasted until 1980, whilst the 1/2p coin lasted until 1984.
The 1p and 2p coins were limited by the practical size of the 1/2p coin. 2p weighs twice 1p which weighed twice 1/2p. £1 of the copper coins weighs the same, regardless of makeup.
I'm American and I was in the UK for three years back in the 90s. I remember hearing about the old Pound, Shilling & Pence days. Great video!
I still remember getting on a bus during the transition and giving the driver a sixpence and a 2p coin for a 4p ride. He was totally freaked-out and unable to figure out the change.
What better way to celebrate brexit by reverting back to the old system, right? ( may contain irony)
😂
And selling things by ounces, measuring things in feet, and re-introduce hanging. Various Brextremists are looking forward to all of these.
Right, I'll just go for a drive in my Hillman Avenger now. (Really!)
How is that irony?
Get the spitfires ready...
That's the way history is. Nothing lasts forever. Not even the EU...
I was a few days old when the "new pence" was introduced. I was still seeing 1s and 2s coins on my paper round years later.
Yes. The old 1 shilling and 2 shilling coins were still valid as 5p and 10p respectively for quite some time after decimalisation. I suppose it was because they were so similar to the new 5p and 10p coins that it was decided to just keep using them till they wore out.
@TheRenaissanceman65 I'd forgotten about the sixpence. The tanner as it was known. Anyone know why it was called a tanner? Nothing to do with the leather industry surely?
It's named after John Sigismund Tanner, an engraver and designer for the Royal Mint.
@@gwishart I never knew that. Makes sense naming it after the designer.
My grandmother was registered as blind, and as a youngster it was my job to help her get use to the new coinage with a plastic set of coins that was issued by one of the "blind" organisations. I also vividly remember (but I've no idea why) that the film on tv that day was "I was Monty's double".
I had my first puppy that day. I went out with a pocketful of coins to buy some dog supplies. The elderly couple who ran the shop had no idea what their stock was in decimal money, and I could not convert either, even though I'd had lessons at school. In the end, we came to an agreement that suited all of us. I called my new puppy Penny in honour of the day.
We had a few of the old coins around the house for years after decimalisation when I was kid. The Threepenny was a very cool coin - heavy, with a lot of sides. But trying to calculate anything in imperial money was was idiotically tricky.
Not if you were brought up with it.......
My record was stacking 4 thrupences end on end. Tried to do it again with my granddaughter ,but failed. You can't relive past glories.
I believe the modern £1 coin is the same size and shape as the old threepenny bit. It's also worth the same, too.
@@mandolinic Same shape certainly, maybe a trifle larger. Haven't seen a thrupenny bit for so long, I can't be sure of their size anymore. As to the purchasing power, you're not far off.........
Mandolinic : Got to agree with you again. The £1, and to a lesser extent, the 50p/20p, are straight lifts from the 'thrupenny bit' and the 5p is a straight lift from the sixpence.
Thanks, This brought back memories. I was 8 on February 15th, 1971. I can remember the change to decimal and thought it seemed exciting and found it easier.
Ady -UK I bet it bloody did. I’m 15 now and my grandad loved (and still wants to go back to it) the old system and tries to teach me it and it’s so confusing! How did you deal with all these shillings and crowns and god knows what else!
My dad got paid in decimal money on the Thursday prior to D-day so I got my spending money in the bronze decimal coins - I was the centre of attention at school the day after!
Stephen Matura when the new plastic £5 note came in my friend at school jack bought it in. He was the first person I knew to have one, my dad didn’t even get one before him. He got a lot of people asking him to see it (poeple who like things like that tho not the popular ones)
EVERYTHING was more exciting in 1971.
@@tobeytransport2802 I reckon that when we were using the £sd currency (Pounds, Shillings and Pence) the population generally were much better at maths, mental arithmetic especially, as you needed to use your brain that little bit more when calculating amounts of money wheher adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing. Working things out quickly in your head became second nature and was good exercise for the brain. You wouldn't need to use a calculator or a pen and paper as nearly as much as people seem to do today. I'm sure your grandad would totally agree with me on that.
In Aussie, we converted in February 1966, with the old Ten Shillings becoming the Aussie Dollar...of 100 cents.
The Penny and Ha'Penny disapeared, replaced by the 1 cent and 2 cent bronze coins...now also disappeared; but the Sixpence was replaced by the 5 cents (CuNi), ofthe same size and wt.
The Shilling by the 10 cents, and 2 bob the 20cents...being same in wt etc, ther was no need to modify Vending machines.
The 50 cent coin, originally round and Silver, was 5 shillings, but changing Silver values caused it to be withdrawn and replaced by a 12 sided CuNi coin.
Paper 1 & 2 dollar notes were, with inflation, replaced by "Gold" coins ( actually Brassy)....
A jingle about shillings and pence, and dollars and cents, to the music of
" Click go the shears" ( a shearers' ballad from the 1880s) on " the 14th. Of February, 1966".
The relationship between GBP and AuP ( 20 Aussie Shillings = 25 GB Shillings) was also abandoned about this time.
One of the things I remember (I was 12 at the time) was shops were given a few days after the 15th of February to change over if they hadn't done so already (new tills etc). There were two blocks of shops round the corner from where I lived at the time, and all but one (a newsagents) had changed over. It did so a few days later.
You talk about the shilling and show a picture of the two shilling (florin) coin. I went to school in the pound, shilling and pence day and the syboll for the penny was historically a D so it wasn't brought in for decimalisation as it sounds like you suggest. The symbols for the money was because of the Latin name
£ librae s solidi d denarii and date back to the time of Roman occupation so it's no wonder that people were reluctant to change. I myself was only 16 at the time and found it easy to change but my parents struggled. Incidentally the reason it is pound sterling is because in the original it was actually a pound (weight) of silver.
Norwegian furniture maker here, born 1971, so I know little of these things, but I found "£ librae s solidi d denarii" very useful to learn ! It's a bit like the imperial / metric measurements used in my trade : When my materials are still 'in the rough' - as planks, boards and beams - I think of them in inches (and their length in feet) -- because that is still the dimensions they are sawn to (even though they are sold in metric denominations) and the "12-number system" is convenient to divide by when you want whole numbers as the result. After that, it's metric millimeters all the way home :-) I wouldn't say the metric system is better as such, but it seems to me to be a 'tidier' way of thinking. But then ... what comes natural is what you're used to, I guess. Anyways : thanks for the librae, solidi & denarii !
All coins in the old days were made of decent metal and thats why they have survived. Anyone in 100 years time hoping to dig up a coin made today won't be lucky as the crap metal they use now will have disintegrated.
wasn't the Pound changed to be backed by gold instead of silver after the Spanish started mining in the Americas? obviously not a pound of gold, but still
@@PompeyChris71 Yes, bronze coins have been copper plated steel since 1992, you can hear the difference in the ring if dropped on a hard floor.
As the Roman empire declined, the silver content of coins was diluted. Dropping them on a shield was a way of testing by the sound they made, which may be where the term 'the ring of truth' came from.
@@1224chrisng I don't know I was just saying why it was the pound Sterling.
I was 20 when the changeover happened. All my school years and five years of work was in old money. A lot poeple ripped us off by changing one old penny to one new penney, when in fact a a new penny was worth more than twice as much.
I still miss it. And sometimes still convert.
You didn't mention that the old one and two shilling coins stuck around for a long time after as they were acceptable as 5 and 10 pence coins up until they reduced the size in the early 1990s, they were finally withdrawn completely in 1993. Playing with my Mum's set of old coins as a kid is what got me into coin collecting.
I was 10 years old when decimalisation occurred. Even today I have no problem converting historic old money price sheets to new money and vice versa, in my head. The same goes for imperial and metric conversions.
That's the thing with us Brits, we easily can use both imperial & metric measurements side by side..
But you still drive on the wrong side of the road though...😁
Lyle G thanks but say that to the Japanese. They will anime you
Not the young ones.
I've had people try to explain old money to me and I just couldn't grasp why anyone would want such a complex system filled with arbitrary and mismatch rules. I feel the same way about the imperial measuring system. I had people proudly tell me they've lost x stone and y pounds since starting their new diet and I've had zero point of reference for how much this is. It surprised me moving from N.Ireland to England to find that England was much less decriminalised than N.Ireland. Milk still being sold in pints and that sort of thing.
It was all about division, can you divide a decimal £ into exact thirds? Can you divide a metre into exact thirds?
@@eugenechester8748 Can you divide 2 shillings by 10?
I was at school when this was happening, we had to learn both systems. Years later when I got into Role ply games, with people much younger than myself, I found in some games (including D& D I think) I was the only one who could handle the money which was duodecimal!
At the time I was a kid who used to get sweets from the penny tray in the local shop. Before decimalisation, 1 pound would buy 240 sweets. after decimalisation it changed to a halfpenny tray 0.5p for a while and 1 pound bought 200 sweets. it wasn't long before it returned to being the penny tray and only 100 sweets.
I'm 25 and I remember going on holiday to Mallorca as a child and seeing items in supermarkets with labels in both pesetas and euros. Would have been early 2000s.
The old sixpence (affectionally known as a tanner) coin wasn't withdrawn at the time of decimalisation. It had an exact value equivalent of two and a half new pence, and remained in circulation and legal tender until 1980.
The great thing about the old money was that you would get really old coins in you change. Such as Victorian pennies. Pennies minted in the 1880s or 90s.
The most recent time I was in a Swiss bakery one of the coins I got back as change was a 1/2 Franc minted in 1889. Which as someone who does like collecting coins, sadly isn't an experience you can have with Euros. The closest thing there is getting some of the first coins minted in 1999 or even 1998, which are actually quite rare.
Shillings and Florins (2 shillings) struck as early as 1947 remained in circulation until smaller 5p and 10p coins were introduced in the early 1990s.
true i remember getting a 2S coin in change in the early 90s as a 10p coin
Just surfing around when I found your video. Loved it. Instant new subscriber.
Welcome aboard!
Glad I was born in 1971, the old money looks very confusing
It was! Though we didn't realise it at the time. I was 12 when the change took place.
Alan Cheatley That’s what I thought, I was born in 2004 so the only old money I’ve ever seen is in my grandads coinage book
I was born in 1960 and so used the old money until I was eleven and it wasn't confusing when that was the currency at the time, but it was confusing for the people that were used to the old currency when the new decimal currency was introduced in 1971.
@@Nooziterp1 It wasn't if you grew up with it - like I did. I was 20 when the changeover happened.
If you think the old money looks confusing, look up other measurements, such as rods, chains and furlongs for length.
Great vlog as always! I do not understand anything about shillings and sixpence. I still can remember my father in the late 70s and early 80s returning from the UK with coins as 2 1/2S and a sixpence. I do not know if they were still OK or that they saw he was not English.
Thank you. My parents often expressed values in old money and I had no idea what they were talking about. It was very confusing.
not really. You're confused because you were not raised during the pre-decimal era.
For more than a thousand years, from the year 775 AD until 14-February 1971, England used the Carolingian monetary system. During those years, a Pound was worth 240 pence. This currency system continued until the formation of Great Britain (1700s) and United Kingdom (1800s).
1 Pound = 20 shillings
1 Shilling = 12 pence
A penny is further divided into half penny and one-fourth penny called farthing.
If the price of an item cost less than a shilling (pence only), it is written as 11d, 10d, 9d, 5¼d, etc. The letter "d" means "denarius". It is the Latin word for the standard silver coin introduced by the Romans.
If the price has both shillings and pence, it is written with slash (/) as separator. Example: 15 shillings and 6 pence is written as 15/6. If the price is exactly 15 shillings without pence, it is written as 15/-
If the price has pounds, shillings and pence, the separator can either be slash (/) or dash (-). Example: 2 pounds, 15 shillings and 6 pence is written as £2/15/6 or £2-15-6.
When adding prices, you should have memorised the 12 Times Table to be able to add prices.
For example, you bought 5 items in a supermarket:
Item#1 is 15/7
Item#2 is 16/8
Item#3 is 17/9
Item#4 is 18/10
Item#5 is 19/11
Total in shillings and pence: 88/9
Total in £sd: £4/8/9
By adding all the shillings and all the pence, you will get a total of 85 shillings and 45 pence.
To get the exact amount in shillings and pence, you need to think how many shillings are there in 45 pence. The answer is 3 shillings with a remainder of 9 pence.
Add 3 shillings to 85 shillings; you'll get a total of 88 shillings.
Therefore, the total amount you bought in the supermarket was 88 shillings and 9 pence (88/9) or 4 Pounds 8 shillings 9 pence (£4/8/9).
This is the reason why back in the days, British children were taught to memorise the 12 Times Table.
To make it simple, the old money of Britain was similar to the height of a person expressed in feet and inches. Examples: 5'7, 5'9, 5'11, 6'2. The amount in shillings is similar to the number of feet while the amount in pence is similar to the number of inches.
A lot of people born after 1971 (or not yet an adult in 1971) thought that the Pounds, Shillings and Pence was a very difficult system when it was still in use in Britain. Videos in youtube always give the impression that it was a very complicated system. Someone even made a comment that it would be very difficult to give change if you are selling an item worth £1/5/9 (1 Pound 5 shillings and 9 pence) and the customer gave you a £5 note. hahahahaha... His comment shows that he did not live during the pre-decimal era. In schools, children were taught the arithmetic of the Pounds, Shillings and Pence system but in reality people in Britain don't count money in Pounds in their everyday lives; they only count in shillings and pence. It should be noted that after World War-2, there were only 3 banknotes in Britain: 10-shilling note, £1 note (20 shillings) and £5 note (100 shillings). The £10 note (200 shillings) was only re-introduced in 1964 while the £20 note (400 shillings) was re-introduced in 1970. During the pre-decimal era, prices in street markets, stores, supermarkets, department stores and even petrol stations were expressed in shillings and pence only. At Harrods or Marks & Spencer, you would see the prices of items were 67/8, 45/6, 54/10, 49/11, etc. The "Pounds, Shillings and Pence" will only show on the cash register during check out. In street markets, there were no cash registers, sellers just count and compute for change in their heads or using a pen and paper. During that time, shilling was the de facto main unit of currency while the Pound was the de facto superunit. The Pound as the de jure main unit of currency was only expressed in prices of expensive products such as TVs, refrigerators, cars, etc., in real estate properties and in big business transactions especially in international trade and commerce. If an item only costs 1 Pound 5 shillings and 9 pence, it would be written as 25/9 instead of £1/5/9. If the customer gave a £5 note which is equivalent to 100 shillings, the customer's change is obviously 74/3. The seller would then give the customer three £1 notes (60 shillings), one 10-shilling note, two florin coins (4 shillings) and a 3-pence coin. For the sake of that guy's curiosity on how to compute for the change if the price of an item is expressed in Pounds Shillings and Pence, here's how it works:
When it comes to giving or receiving a change, you only need to remember 20 and 12. There are 20 shillings in a Pound and there are 12 pence in a shilling.
If the price of an item costs 1 Pound and 5 shillings (£1/5/-) and the money given by the customer was £5, round-up £1 (1 becomes 2) and then subtract it from £5 (5-2=3). Subtract 5/- from 20/- (20-5=15). Therefore, the customer's change is 3 Pounds and 15 shillings (£3/15/-)
If the price of an item costs 1 Pound 5 shillings and 9 pence (£1/5/9) and the money given by the customer was £5, round-up both £1 (1 becomes 2) and 5/- (5 becomes 6). Subtract £2 from £5 (5-2=3) and subtract 6/- from 20/- (20-6=14). Subtract 9 pence from 12 pence (12-9=3). Therefore, the customer's change is 3 Pounds 14 shillings and 3 pence (£3/14/3)
From a currency similar to feet and inches (like a person's height) to a currency based on 10s and 100s. This is the reason why a lot of people in Britain find it hard to adjust when decimalisation was implemented in 1971 plus the fact that the decimalisation format used by the British government was flawed. From a very flexible denomination of 240 pence to a Pound, the British government chose a cramped 100 "new pence" to a Pound. On 15-February 1971, the shilling was devalued to 5 "new pence" (no longer 12) so that one Pound would be equivalent to 100 "new pence". Among former British colonies that transitioned to decimal currency, Ghana is the best. Ghana's decimal currency called Cedi (₵) is equivalent to 8 shillings and 4 pence (8/4) or 100 pence. Therefore, all the old pence are equally convertible to the new decimal currency. No need to worry about adjustment of prices; only the name of the currency and its denomination will change. 8/4 is ₵1.00 which means one Ghanaian Pound is equal to two Cedis and 40 pesewa (£1=₵2.40). In 1970, Bermuda Islands followed Ghana's decimalisation format. One Bermudian Pound is equal to two Bermudian Dollars and 40 cents (£1=$2.40). When South Africa decimalised the South African Pound, it converted 10 shillings (120 pence) to the new currency called Rand. 120 pence were converted to 100 cents. A little adjustment needs to be made when it comes to pricing and balancing bank accounts because 1.20 pence shall be equivalent to 1 cent. One South African Pound is equal to two South African Rands (£1=R2.00). South Africa's format of decimalisation from Pounds to the new decimalised currency was followed by Australia, New Zealand and Nigeria. Britain did the worst decimalisation format. Britain converted 20 shillings (240 pence) to 100 pence. Inflation was the result. The government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson was too afraid to lose the Pound as Britain's currency that's why he followed the advice of the Bank of England to retain the Pound. BOE and Harold Wilson did not follow the format of Ghana's new decimalised currency based on 8/4 (100 pence) nor South Africa's version of decimalised currency based on 10/- (120 pence converted to 100 cents). Instead, Britain decimalised the Pound by shrinking its value from 240 pence to 100 pence only. Some people in Britain even thought that the value of their money/income has diminished because in every shilling they spend (5 new pence) they were ripped off by the government for 7 pence. Devaluing the shilling from 12 pence to 5 pence was not a joke especially during the time when prices were still cheap. The ill-conceived decimalisation of the Pound in 1971 was one of the "ingredients" of the economic disaster of Britain during the turbulent decade of the 1970s. It may not be the main reason but it contributed to the economic crisis during that time. Maybe it's true that 10 is simpler than 12 or the decimal currency system is simpler than imperial currency system but the transition of Britain to decimal currency system in 1971 was NOT simple.
Thanks for this. Canadian here and we have pretty much always used decimal (Dollars and cents). I was in England (to see Grandad and Nanny) in 1968 as 4 yr old but I don't remember money then. When I next visited in 1974 I was 10 and decimal was natural for me.
I had wondered about your conversion and thanks for this.
:)
Yeah Canada swapped really early since it made trade with the US easier since the US was their biggest trading partner for almost the entire lifespan of the US/Canada (whichever you want to count as older)
@@DrewPicklesTheDark I have no idea what you're talking about. And neither does anyone else
I remember this con on the public suddenly the minimum a price could rise was 1/2 a new penny so the maths is easy 240 old pennies to a £1 suddenly 100 new pennies to a £1. What a rip off!!!!
Idiot.
I remember it well, within four months I would have left school and started work at the age of fifteen. By then I was skipping school lunches along with my friends as they had abandoned the old style meals such as meat and veg for less substantial fare. It was an unhealthy move for me as we would take our money to the local fish and chip shop five days a week. I survived. My point is that overnight the price of food went up. My old lunch cost me more each day as the price had been rounded up. When my mother asked me to go to the local shop for milk and butter that too had increased in price and I had to walk back to the house to ask for more money. I have read that this practice was rare but I can tell you that is nonsense.
Yes prices did go up, but this was mainly due to rampant inflation which had little to do with decimalisation, and more to do with a useless Labour Government.
@@stevetaylor8698 This is correct. The older people did not understand this and blamed the inflation on decimalisation.
I am slightly younger than you and must disagree both with your comments about changes to school meals (i.e abandoning old style meals such as meat and veg for less substantial fare) during that period and the price increase that you mention. There was no price increase such as you mention and the maximum amount of 'rounding up' would have been very small and only involving items involving a 4d or 5d price which would have both become 2p or a 10d or 11d price which would both have become 4p.
As all items were 'double priced' for some time before and after the change. Yes, there was rapid inflation during the 1970's but not in the way you imply here.
Thank you, very well put together.
I remember this as a six year old at the time, there were big charts on the walls of shops with pictures of the coins and they even issued plastic decimal coins so you or grown ups in my case could get used to them.
my Gran had a problem at first but soon got used to them. Big thing at the time as i remember.
Thank you. (:
I'm 34 and regularly say "Tuppence" as it's quicker than saying 2p coin ;)
You can buy something for that?
@@paulmarchant9231 A penny sweet.
I'm 64 and got a three penny piece for my pocket money, have I spelt this right? thruppence?
@@peterperigoe9231 And don't forget the old English expression . "Cor , look at the thruppenny bits on her..."
@@bodkinofnurk8898 No haven't heard that one, but perhaps I could guess?
I loved the old money, confused the crap out of Johnny Foreigner 😄
I can't imagine what it must've been like to be an accountant.
@@MrC0MPUT3R Accountants are experts and we're tired of those
@@MrC0MPUT3R Being a computer you will never know, as you couldn't do sums in base 12 and base 20. Which was the reason for going decimal in the first place.
As an older American I've always been confused by monetary terms used by Brits. This video just adds another layer to that confusion.
Why to be confused??? You may ask somebody from Europe how confused is by units used in US for length, volumes, weigh and others.
I mean it's no stranger than your early currency system, which was based on taking Spanish dollars and slicing them into eight pieces; leading to coins that are named as fractions.
"Ten plus seven make seventeen; subtract twelve, put down your five and carry one: One and five". I was in the last class in my school do 'money sums' in the old currency. Just reciting the patter involved makes me nostalgic. I also remember the metallic 'swish, swish, swish' sound the big old copper pennies made as you counted out your pocket money.
So the Brits were doing this about the same time we in the United States were converting to the metric system. Except… you succeeded and we just gave up. ‘Merica!
I'm 57, British, and still unable to get away from describing things in imperial measure. It grieves me that a perfectly good system that endured for many centuries has been superseded/replaced by the metric system. British road signs are still in imperial measurement (miles, rather than km), as are good old milestones by the road and the speedometer on a car is primarily in imperial, so why did we foolishly adopt this european concept in the first place?
Hazel Anderson You’re right about the roads which is why they haven’t changed them 😋 For finances and geometry metric is immeasurably easier to work with hence the change was made.
@@hazelanderson1479 Probably to appease all the naysayers and "Nothing should ever change... everything that ever was should always be" brigade, the goverment probably thought "Ok we'll change the currency but keep the road signs the same, hopefully that will lessen the complaining moaners." I'm surprised you're even referring to speedometers on cars. CARS? I'd have thought you'd have been against such a change from the days of horse and carts. Oh wait... you're 57... now I get it. Cars had already been invented before you were born so THAT change is ok. But the change to decimal happened during your lifetime and slightly inconvenienced you. Now I see the distinction.
Now the UK is out of EU it may reverse to imperial measurement system as: gallon, quart, fluid once, troy once, fluid scruple, fluid drachm, grain, stone, slug, gill etc. Later on, the next step will be to reconstruct the British Empire. I think will be hard but worth it. Good look.
@@VSP4591 LMAO. Always looking back, never looking forward. That's the UK- Way!
1:58 “There’s a ten-shilling note. Remember them? That’s when we used to vote for him...”
Hey a fellow Kate Bush fan!
Hey a fellow Kate Bush fan!
I flew to the UK in summer 1974. I remember some folks were still unsettled about the new money. Since it was similar to my American dollars worth 100 cents, I had no problems. I think I still got some old money in change. I still have some coins; I'll check when I get around to it. Good video, thanks!
Nice, great history. I was born in 1976 and was oblivious to this. Brilliant
Biggest reason for this was inflation making all the smallest old values almost worthless.
LuckystrikeNQ - Not really inflation. The smaller value coins can be withdrawn from circulation, just as the 1/2p was in the UK. There’s been quite a lot of discussion about withdrawing 1p and 2p coins as they cost at least four of five times their face value to produce, but doing so would stoke inflation. Certainly the old 1d coins were far too big to be convenient but could easily have been replaced by something the size of a 1/2p or 1p. I remember having pockets full of 1d coins when going to the sweetshop near school: the sweets almost weighed less than the coins!
@@sirrathersplendid4825
The size of the coins were limited by the need that the 2p weighs twice the 1p and the 1p weighed twice the 1/2p (presumably for quick counting by weighing...£1 of "coppers" always weighed the same regardless of the mix of 2p, 1p and 1/2p). The limiting factor being a reasonable size and weight for the 1/2p coin.
With the withdrawal of the 1/2p coin there was nothing really to stop them doing what they did to the 5p and 10p coins - make them smaller (and lighter) and thus cut the production costs.
We had that mug!! I was nine when the swap took place, and my mum bought a tea towel with graphics equating old and new amounts, which hung on the wall in the kitchen.
It was a time of change - we learnt metric measurements at school, secure in the knowledge that metrication would mean farewell to inches, feet and miles, gallons and pints (ha ha).
And, about that time, a Conservative government decided we should enter the Common Market.... beholding a bright future as part of the European project.
Where did it all go wrong? Still, one out of three's not bad, eh?
I knew, that our British cousins would never forsake the pint!
Beholding a dismal future as part of Socialist experiment allowing terrorists to overwhelm you.
I remember old Britain and it was very much different from now. Your video shows what it looked like.
Yeah, rickets, dipheria, typhoid.....
Yes, god-awful miserable hole as I recall. Oh, not so different after all.
Same ol' racist gits though...
Shillings and pence ? What a ridiculous system ! Great video.
I was born in 1963. I seem to remember there were suicides over the change to decimal currency, mainly old people that feared they were gonna be ripped off somehow, though this may have been an urban myth (or just myth - why is it always 'urban'?). There was advice in the papers in how to convert from decimal to pounds, shillings and pence, or vice versa, for years before - how much of a dullard do you have to be to not be able to use a bastard conversion chart? Especially when the alternative was putting a rope round your neck and kicking the chair away . . .
Many of the older generation as we know were very reluctant to changes or learning something new. Nowadays change happens more frequently and we have to be prepared for it. It's a fact of life. In the mid 90s I was too scared to use a computer and I thought the ATM was going to steal my money and only felt safe when the clerk at the bank handled my deposits and withdrawals, lol. I'm kind of glad we have what we have today. Here in Australia we still have those that are over 70 missing the old money before decimalisation in 1966.
When the euro was introduced, the EU was anxious to know how long the average person would need to mentally adapt, and if it would be different from one country to the next. France had bad news: In 1960 the country had replaced their currency (the French franc) with the New French franc, worth 100 old French francs. Forty years later it found that quite a number of people who were in their thirties back in 1960 were still mentally converting it to old money before deciding if something was worth the money.
@@ixlnxs that's very interesting to hear!
It doesn't surprise me. Poor education was even more endemic then. There's that famous Clip that's also on here in CZcams of an old woman in that era, who said she didn't want to change from miles to kilometres because it'd make things further away
I lived in hungary, where the changeover happened before my birth so I always was used to a one currency system, the Forint. Fillérs went out in 99 and 1 and 2 forint coins had such little value, that they were more expensive to make than they were worth. I remember having like 10 of each in my hand and thinking "huh, this is worthless now" even though yu coudl exchange them for other coins/banknotes if you had enough. I never could imagine having a 3 currency system, where it isn't just 10 every step. Even converting to euro was a struggle
For more than a thousand years, from the year 775 AD until 14-February 1971, England used the Carolingian monetary system. During those years, a Pound was worth 240 pence. This currency system continued until the formation of Great Britain (1700s) and United Kingdom (1800s).
1 Pound = 20 shillings
1 Shilling = 12 pence
A penny is further divided into half penny and one-fourth penny called farthing.
If the price of an item cost less than a shilling (pence only), it is written as 11d, 10d, 9d, 5¼d, etc. The letter "d" means "denarius". It is the Latin word for the standard silver coin introduced by the Romans.
If the price has both shillings and pence, it is written with slash (/) as separator. Example: 15 shillings and 6 pence is written as 15/6. If the price is exactly 15 shillings without pence, it is written as 15/-
If the price has pounds, shillings and pence, the separator can either be slash (/) or dash (-). Example: 2 pounds, 15 shillings and 6 pence is written as £2/15/6 or £2-15-6.
When adding prices, you should have memorised the 12 Times Table to be able to add prices.
For example, you bought 5 items in a supermarket:
Item#1 is 15/7
Item#2 is 16/8
Item#3 is 17/9
Item#4 is 18/10
Item#5 is 19/11
Total in shillings and pence: 88/9
Total in £sd: £4/8/9
By adding all the shillings and all the pence, you will get a total of 85 shillings and 45 pence.
To get the exact amount in shillings and pence, you need to think how many shillings are there in 45 pence. The answer is 3 shillings with a remainder of 9 pence.
Add 3 shillings to 85 shillings; you'll get a total of 88 shillings.
Therefore, the total amount you bought in the supermarket was 88 shillings and 9 pence (88/9) or 4 Pounds 8 shillings 9 pence (£4/8/9).
This is the reason why back in the days, British children were taught to memorise the 12 Times Table.
To make it simple, the old money of Britain was similar to the height of a person expressed in feet and inches. Examples: 5'7, 5'9, 5'11, 6'2. The amount in shillings is similar to the number of feet while the amount in pence is similar to the number of inches.
A lot of people born after 1971 (or not yet an adult in 1971) thought that the Pounds, Shillings and Pence was a very difficult system when it was still in use in Britain. Videos in youtube always give the impression that it was a very complicated system. Someone even made a comment that it would be very difficult to give change if you are selling an item worth £1/5/9 (1 Pound 5 shillings and 9 pence) and the customer gave you a £5 note. hahahahaha... His comment shows that he did not live during the pre-decimal era. In schools, children were taught the arithmetic of the Pounds, Shillings and Pence system but in reality people in Britain don't count money in Pounds in their everyday lives; they only count in shillings and pence. It should be noted that after World War-2, there were only 3 banknotes in Britain: 10-shilling note, £1 note (20 shillings) and £5 note (100 shillings). The £10 note (200 shillings) was only re-introduced in 1964 while the £20 note (400 shillings) was re-introduced in 1970. During the pre-decimal era, prices in street markets, stores, supermarkets, department stores and even petrol stations were expressed in shillings and pence only. At Harrods or Marks & Spencer, you would see the prices of items were 67/8, 45/6, 54/10, 49/11, etc. The "Pounds, Shillings and Pence" will only show on the cash register during check out. In street markets, there were no cash registers, sellers just count and compute for change in their heads or using a pen and paper. During that time, shilling was the de facto main unit of currency while the Pound was the de facto superunit. The Pound as the de jure main unit of currency was only expressed in prices of expensive products such as TVs, refrigerators, cars, etc., in real estate properties and in big business transactions especially in international trade and commerce. If an item only costs 1 Pound 5 shillings and 9 pence, it would be written as 25/9 instead of £1/5/9. If the customer gave a £5 note which is equivalent to 100 shillings, the customer's change is obviously 74/3. The seller would then give the customer three £1 notes (60 shillings), one 10-shilling note, two florin coins (4 shillings) and a 3-pence coin. For the sake of that guy's curiosity on how to compute for the change if the price of an item is expressed in Pounds Shillings and Pence, here's how it works:
When it comes to giving or receiving a change, you only need to remember 20 and 12. There are 20 shillings in a Pound and there are 12 pence in a shilling.
If the price of an item costs 1 Pound and 5 shillings (£1/5/-) and the money given by the customer was £5, round-up £1 (1 becomes 2) and then subtract it from £5 (5-2=3). Subtract 5/- from 20/- (20-5=15). Therefore, the customer's change is 3 Pounds and 15 shillings (£3/15/-)
If the price of an item costs 1 Pound 5 shillings and 9 pence (£1/5/9) and the money given by the customer was £5, round-up both £1 (1 becomes 2) and 5/- (5 becomes 6). Subtract £2 from £5 (5-2=3) and subtract 6/- from 20/- (20-6=14). Subtract 9 pence from 12 pence (12-9=3). Therefore, the customer's change is 3 Pounds 14 shillings and 3 pence (£3/14/3)
From a currency similar to feet and inches (like a person's height) to a currency based on 10s and 100s. This is the reason why a lot of people in Britain find it hard to adjust when decimalisation was implemented in 1971 plus the fact that the decimalisation format used by the British government was flawed. From a very flexible denomination of 240 pence to a Pound, the British government chose a cramped 100 "new pence" to a Pound. On 15-February 1971, the shilling was devalued to 5 "new pence" (no longer 12) so that one Pound would be equivalent to 100 "new pence". Among former British colonies that transitioned to decimal currency, Ghana is the best. Ghana's decimal currency called Cedi (₵) is equivalent to 8 shillings and 4 pence (8/4) or 100 pence. Therefore, all the old pence are equally convertible to the new decimal currency. No need to worry about adjustment of prices; only the name of the currency and its denomination will change. 8/4 is ₵1.00 which means one Ghanaian Pound is equal to two Cedis and 40 pesewa (£1=₵2.40). In 1970, Bermuda Islands followed Ghana's decimalisation format. One Bermudian Pound is equal to two Bermudian Dollars and 40 cents (£1=$2.40). When South Africa decimalised the South African Pound, it converted 10 shillings (120 pence) to the new currency called Rand. 120 pence were converted to 100 cents. A little adjustment needs to be made when it comes to pricing and balancing bank accounts because 1.20 pence shall be equivalent to 1 cent. One South African Pound is equal to two South African Rands (£1=R2.00). South Africa's format of decimalisation from Pounds to the new decimalised currency was followed by Australia, New Zealand and Nigeria. Britain did the worst decimalisation format. Britain converted 20 shillings (240 pence) to 100 pence. Inflation was the result. The government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson was too afraid to lose the Pound as Britain's currency that's why he followed the advice of the Bank of England to retain the Pound. BOE and Harold Wilson did not follow the format of Ghana's new decimalised currency based on 8/4 (100 pence) nor South Africa's version of decimalised currency based on 10/- (120 pence converted to 100 cents). Instead, Britain decimalised the Pound by shrinking its value from 240 pence to 100 pence only. Some people in Britain even thought that the value of their money/income has diminished because in every shilling they spend (5 new pence) they were ripped off by the government for 7 pence. Devaluing the shilling from 12 pence to 5 pence was not a joke especially during the time when prices were still cheap. The ill-conceived decimalisation of the Pound in 1971 was one of the "ingredients" of the economic disaster of Britain during the turbulent decade of the 1970s. It may not be the main reason but it contributed to the economic crisis during that time. Maybe it's true that 10 is simpler than 12 or the decimal currency system is simpler than imperial currency system but the transition of Britain to decimal currency system in 1971 was NOT simple.
Americans today would lose their everlovin minds if we had to go through something like that..
American money is already decimal so don't worry. I can't think of any countries that aren't now.
Mauritania and Madagascar are both still non-decimal
@@myvids1415 Of course he means converting to the SI ("metric") system...
@@Rob2 Yes I agree but if you are familiar with a base 10 system it should be an easier transition. For most of the UK population this event was the first time they had to deal with base 10 on a day to day basis.
@@myvids1415 if thats true: no wonder they still have a monarchy unlike most others
I was 5 in 71 and don't remember the the old money at all.
Thanks for sharing this, very interesting.
My gran was also of the opinion, that shopkeepers took advantage of decimalisation, and put prices up 🙈🙈🙈
I was 5 like you, coming up to my 6th birthday in April ... I remember the time very well as we were being primed with the new money in school ready for D Day the 15th of February 1971 a date etched in my memory!.
I am too young to remember this - my dad was 12 so remembers it quite well.
The double prices reminds me of visiting France after the adoption of the Euro where you could see both prices displayed in shops.
As I was a primary teacher for 10 years, whenever we did units of measurement, I'd have a bit of fun by discussing the old units and watching the children look at me like I was telling them dragons really exist!
100 pence to a pound is easier when adding because you don't need to worry about not mastering the 12 x table. American children were taught in school to memorize only up to 10 x table while British children need to memorize up to 12 x table. If let's say the total amount of pence is 175, you simply have to put the total amount of pence as "75" and carry over the "1" in the pounds column and then add it to the total amount of pounds. Under the imperial currency, if the total amount of old pence is 175, you need to think how many shillings can be extracted from 175 before you can carry over to the shillings column and put the remainder as the number of pence (175=14/7). However, when it comes to selling, the imperial currency is more effective and useful than the decimal currency because 240 is a highly composite number. A highly composite number is a positive integer with more divisors than any smaller positive integer has. 240 is listed as a highly composite number. 100 is not in the list.
Pre decimal. They were referred to as “Pennies” not “Pence”
Except tuppence, thruppence, sixpence.
I lived with the old system for about 16 years before D-day. In fact, both "pennies" and "pence" were widely used, with the latter normally being chosen after a number, eg. fourpence, sixpence, ninepence, tenpence.
Mandolinic : Exactly, e.g. six pence.
Tim Holyoake : Wrong. I refer you to the comment by Mandolinic and to my own comment. I felt rich in the sixties if I had a six-pence to spend or a six-penny piece. "How much does that cost?" Answer " 6 pence." You only spoke of 'pennies' when referring to the copper coin and not to its value. "Oh look, someone has dropped three pennies". "Is it alright if I pay my bus fare in pennies?"
All you had to do was to speak to someone of my age group, I'm 70, and they would have put you right to save you from dropping this clanger. False information is no information.
Miss Moneypenny is very attractive but I will never vote for Mr. Mike Pence!
That was the day that our spending power was slashed, money went much further with the old currency, spend 100 pennies of your pound today and you have nothing left, when we were pre-decimal, if we spent 100 pennies we still had 140 left, people who were not around at that time will never know what they missed out on, what a con job they pulled on us....
As soon as decimalisation happened all prices rose dramatically.
I was in secondary (high school) when it happened. Wilson started the ball rolling after he devalued the pound in '67. It also suited Heath and his traitors in the drive to join the EEC.
Fascinating. Thank you so very much.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Nice video! I never understood the old system when I watched old episodes of the Saint, the avengers and the persuaders. This definitely helps a bit!
Thanks - glad it helped!
Always fascinated me the longevity of coins in change in the 1960s . Pennies and halfpennies going back to 1860 .Silver coins back to 1920 sometimes earlier . I remember getting a1902 sixpence and a 1911 half-crown in change ...I used to haunt the penny arcade s for Victorian pennies got a brand new 1894 penny one day......
I was 15 when we went “decimal” and remember learning in both systems as school especially in maths as all the textbooks were still in the old currency, many shopkeepers did well always rounding up whenever the opportunity arose
Loved travelling to Austria just prior to their change to the Euro. The exchange rate was just over 19 Schillings to the Pound. Being an old giffer brought up on 'old money' when we had 20 shillings to the Pound, l could roughly calculate Austrian prices to British instantly in my head.
The Austrians had the worst time of it converting to Euro.
I was 17 and had learned the old british pound conversions to the dutch guilder. The pound stood at 10. something. In those days the Deutsch Mark was 1.1 to the guilder. The french franc was about 30 dutch cents and the belgian franc 6 cents. Italian lires were counted in the thousands and spanish pesetas were low in value too.
Very interesting video :) great work
I remember Decimsl Day, I was working in a department store in the food area ,there wasn’t an exact correlation between the two systems at the pence end . No prices were rounded down but rounded up .The store made a pretty good profit on rounding up that day!