SYND 15-2-71 THE FIRST DAY OF DECIMALISED CURRENCY IN THE UK
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- čas přidán 20. 07. 2015
- (15 Feb 1971) A special report on Britain's first day of decimnal currency after 800 years of pounds, shillings and pence.
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"If I had had six fingers on each hand, it'd be a different story." This is the smartest comment.
For me (being a ten year old kid at the time) the change over was a breeze! The only thing was the price of bus fares, comics and sweets were never the lower decimal equivalent as stated on the conversion table. The bastards rounded up every time😡
SCOUNDRELS! VANDALS! HOOLIGANS!
PITCHFORKS AND TORCHES
Those chavs!
Where I lived, the bus company decided that the 1/2 p coins were too fiddly for the conductors so they rounded the price up even more.
@@stevetaylor8698 did they accept ½p coins at all to make up the correct fare
LONDON transport fare scale was in 2½p steps in 1971 from 2½p - 20p
They gave us decimal play money in class at school to become familiar with it (I was 7 at the time). I remember Mars bars cost 4p at the sweet shop down the road,Marathon (what they used to call Snickers in Britain) was 3p,Milky Way or packet of crisps 2p,and penny and ha'penny chews!
The Pound did not capitulate, it just went decimal and much easier to inter-exchange with other currencies.
And it took decades for the UK to change to g and kg and it is still in measurement chaos in 2023!!
50 years ago today.
All I can say is be thankful the USA had a decimal currency from the beginning or theyd still be refusing to decimalize and calling anyone who wanted to do so an un American commie
Both America and Canada had proper money £sd many years ago. It's a pity Britain had to change.
@@anthonyinger7591
I mean I can understand the nostalgia but I would absolutely hate trying to figure out money using that system.
One thing about Canada is the $CAD was an amalgamation of all the currencies of the self governing colonies that joined confederation. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Newfoundland and of course the colony of Canada itself (Ontario and Quebec) all had their own dollar and monetary system and it was decided to just standardize them all on a 100 cents in a dollar system because the majority of colonies had that system already and all existing banknotes had to be exchangeable for the (then) new cross-provincial federally run CAD
Before 1792, each US state had its own version of £sd coinage, with different exchange rates. The Spanish dollar (aka "piece of eight") was the one coin that was consistent continent-wide, so it became the basis of the USD.
@@danielbishop1863 It was consistent because it was made of gold.
Exactly,look what happened to Gaddafi when he had the nerve to propose ditching the dollar in favour of a gold backed dinar for trading oil.
Looks like Clapham junction fare on the board at 0.41 in video. 2019 fare is 6.80p
Damn, Britain looked dreary af.
Still is old chap.
It was the 70s. Not a great decade for Britain or pretty much anywhere.
@@jec1nyAre you nuts? The 70s was the height of western civilization
Still does.
Presumably the man at 1:27 who thought it was going to take "years" to get used to decimal currency managed to do so, eventually.
Alas, no. He went quite mad and was admitted to a large psychiatric hospital where he stayed until they closed the large psychiatric hospitals and they sent him to a former boarding house in a run down seaside resort. There he existed, living on baked beans and cider, till he passed away in 1994.
@@stevetaylor8698 Well, that was a sad fate. And all because the money got changed.
This was interesting
It's Y2 71 :)
Heath did not realise that this would boost inflation.
1:42 "No sentimental feelings about LSD?"
"If I had 6 fingers on each hand it would be a different story. Unfortunately I have 9 and they are all different colours."
Old money was 12 pence in a shilling - 20 shillings in a pound - 240 pence in a pound. New money was just 100 new pence to a pound.
Alot of different coins as well
Farthing(Quarter of a pence)
Half penny
Penny
Threepence
Sixpence
Shilling
Florin
Half crown
Crown
Half sovereign
Pound
Guinea(21 shillings)
Etc
I was too young to understand, never mind remember. Eight months old and in the pram at that time. So I never had to deal with the old currency!
Would have made things a little easier if they changed the name of the currency too, which is what most of the rest of the countries that used pounds shillings and pence did.
I have always thought that. That just added to the confusion. I think that Britain was the ONLY country that kept the name "Pound" and "pence" after ditching £sd. Other countries used dollar, Naira, Cidi, Rand, Lira, Punt etc
@@footballsoccerx2021 Ireland also kept the name
@@footballsoccerx2021 The Irish currency was The Punt both before and after decimalisation.
Also, there was no need to change the name as the main unit - the Pound - did not change in value, either at home or in relation to other currencies.
The 70s caught up quickly, 70s perm and leather jacket with flares. The dude joking about 6 fingers was laughing the acronym also being for acid. And who the fuck would pay £10.50 or 10 guineas for that hideous hotpants suspenders thing (Very Leo Sayer)
Leo Sayer would.
I can’t imagine a reporter with such a plummy voice being allowed anywhere near the BBC these days.
That voice - it’s Ted Bullpit! ;) (Ross Higgins)
Britain should have gone to the decimal system either in 1700 or 1800, not February 15, 1971. 😒😒😒😒😒 💷💷💷💷💷
I still remember ten bob notes and half crowns with affection. £.s.d wasn't perfect but it worked well enough to last as long as it did.
To be fair, decimalisation only really took off in the late 18th century when France started!
It wasn't an issue for me as I was a baby in the pram less than a year old!
Decimalisation was just a clever way to debase the currency without most people understanding it was happening.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@andypandy9013 I think you've spent too much time with Looby Loo
Half a pound of mushrooms... for ninepence? Things have changed....
Imagine trying to do this today.....it take years.gina miller constantly taking the decimal people to court hahahahaha
Changing America from imperial system to metric system maybe
@@DarthSagit And really neither Imperial nor Metric is difficult. It's not even hard to combine the two of them, through 2kilos, 5 ounces feels a little weird :)
If I ever weigh myself I calculate a conversion between pounds and kilos (1 kilo = just over 2.2 pounds) in my head.
There wasn't any chaos as we'd already had three years handling the 5p, 10p and 50p coins which were the direct equivilent of the 1/-, 2/- and 10/- coins/note. It was only the coppers that took a bit of getting used to.
Good Point!.
You say that - but many people refused to try and learn the new system. They say the fifty pence as just a ten shilling piece. They didn't think decimal in those 3 years - so they were confused on Decimal day because of their own ignorance. That happened with a lot of people - don't forget - most people did NOT want the change of currency - and therefore did not take notice of the new meanings until Decimal Day when they had no choice
When I was a kid, money went up in twelves and twenties, and EVERYBODY could count money.
Now, money goes up in tens and hundreds, and everybody needs a calculator.
bingola45 - Probably because there were no cheap calculators then. People had to learn to calculate.
For my generation at least in western canada you just tap your card and away you go. Bills and coins are mostly a quaint relic only used by older people and (to be very brutal) those who are buying and selling drugs. We keep a few coins around for vending machines and those coin released shopping carts but thats it.
And now with inflation the penny is gone and the dime and nickel is basically just an annoyance you might as well just have quarters only and price everything in increments of 25 cents or just have a whole dollar divided into fourths instead of 100 because the difference in real value between 10 cents and 20 cents is so minuscule its pointless and sub dollar units are only really necessary for small pieces of candy and trinkets and for psychological pricing (aka when 29.99 looks smaller than 30) I dont think it will be too long before all transactions are in debit credit or crypto and when everything is priced in whole dollars without any sub units.
@@user-xg8yy7yl1d That's certainly what the State is aiming for.
Paid electronically; spend electronically; taxed electronically.
What can go wrong?
@@bingola45 there will be 0 privacy.
If you become a victim of cyber crime,or state persecution,you won't be able to buy anything,except perhaps by barter!
I remember buying 1penny bangers to terrorise the village. My mother used to collect silver threeppenny bits in a large jar.
One shilling is equivalent to 5 new pence. The old sixpence is logically equivalent to 2 and ½ new pence but how about 5d, 4d, 3d, 2d, 1d, ½d? If a product costs 3s 6d the decimalised price would be 17 ½ new pence but what if the product costs 3s 5d? 3s 4d? 3s 3d? 3s 2d? 3s 1d? 3s ½d? Since there's no "exact" equivalent for 5d, 4d, 3d, 2d, 1d, ½d I think that's the reason why some store owners raised their prices.
I remember the change over having just turned six. Not having spends then I never had to count in shillings and pence. Decimal does seem a no-brainer. Just like Brexit and the Millennium, planes didn't fall out of the sky and lifts didn't stop between floors on change over day.
We had plenty of colourful slang terms for the old £sd coins... Copper, Tanner, Bob, Florin, Half a Dollar, Dollar, Sprarzy, Kick, to name but some. In the nearly 50 years since we have had decimal coins though, no real common slang terms have come about for them. The only one I can remember catching on a little was "tiddler" for the now discontinued half new pence coin.
Quid for pounds.
@@torinstorkey Also slang for British Pounds... Notes, Smackers, Knicker (never used in the plural as in 25 Knicker), and Sovs (short for Sovereigns)
@@torinstorkey Quid is as old as the old money, it was slang for a pound a long time before decimalisation.
Yes, plenty of slang terms exist for a £ or multiples thereof, as they did before decalisation, but none really for the coins that make up the £.
enjoy the video , as was at school , amazing prices at time, when look today prices
Seriously people can be stubborn
@TheRenaissanceman65 F*** off with that s***, will you? 😠
That depends on what they're stubborn about, fella.
BRITISH people.
@Griffith Williams If you weigh yourself in tons, then you probably need to lose some weight
@@nunovski2002 MURICA Baby
It wasn’t too difficult. Old Half crown = 12.5p and crown = 25p 4 x 25p was £1 and 4 crowns were previously £1. So easy as long as people remembered that the old sixpence was 2.5p and the new 5p was the same value as the shilling and they used the old shilling piece as a 5p and were still doing so way into the 80’s. The 5p was still 1/20th of a £
NPC379111729 - It seems odd to an American that you didn’t keep quarters (crowns). Our quarter is probably the most useful coin.
@@GH-oi2jf The Crown hadn't been in general use since Victorian times and is only struck in small numbers as commerative coins. They are still struck now as such, the last being 1981 for Prince Charles and Lady Diana's wedding. They have a face value of 25p.
@@GH-oi2jf Decimal 'enthusiasts' only work in multiples of 2, 5 and 10. A 'quarter' of something is anathema to them.
They were horrified when the 'tanner' was retained, as 2.5 np.
They insisted that it be called a 'temporary expedient', and it was; no decimal ones were ever issued.
What was threepence? 🤪
@@paulnicholson1906 3d = 1.25p
Sounds a bit like the millennium bug. Everyone feared it but it just happened.
cucumbers costed 10p in 1971 and oranges were 4p
Get ready for the Euro.
bmwnasher - Not anytime soon, if UK gets out of the EU.
@@GH-oi2jf IF !!!!!!!!!!
Not anytime soon even if the UK remains in the EU either. The Euro has been around for 20 years and we still haven’t adopted it. We have a legally binding opt-out in the Maastricht Treaty which means we can keep the pound forever if we so wish.
@@star_man My comment was tongue in cheek, I did read the Lisbon treaty put pay to that, but these few years I don't believe anything now, so much bias, fake news, gutter journalism etc.
@@star_man You only have a option to opt-out UNTIL new changes to the Lisbon Treaty come into effect in 2020.
The beginning of the end.
The biggest RIP OFF of the millenium.
@FlyingMonkies325 Because the value of currency was changed and we got less for our old money.
@FlyingMonkies325 Do some more study, it was nothing to do with the *sixe of the coins* lol. When you take TWELVE pennies and you turn them into TEN pennies................ you do the maths.
@trains and trams of course it didn't,
@@1justpara Do more study on the subject. The £ stayed the same. Only the sub units changed.
@@Cosford869 Nothing stayed the same. The price stayed the same while the weight went down therefore getting less for your money.