Decimal delight
I enjoy reading BBC History Magazine each month but was particularly pleased to read the article on the introduction of decimalisation in the February issue ( Anniversaries) because, just for a change, I can say: “I was there!”
Though only a little over seven years old, I remember the weeks leading up to the big day as if it were yesterday. I still own the Britain’s First Decimal Coins souvenir set in its blue plastic wallet, and the Waddingtons game Decimal Dominoes, with its slightly garish green-and-purple cardboard dominoes, which aimed to educate us about the new coinage and its financial equivalence to the old money.
My best memory is of the government public service adverts that, if I remember correctly, featured the upbeat ditty: “Decimal shops have decimal prices, decimal shops give decimal change,” along with the rather sombre “LSD shops have LETTER OF THE MONTH LSD prices, LSD shops give LSD change”. The clear message was that decimalisation was the fast-paced, go-ahead future, and that the old money was best retired off. I was of the generation that quickly took to the new money, but still old enough to remember fondly the florins and thrupenny bits. Happy days! Neil Jacobson, Harrow
We reward the letter of the month writer with our ‘History Choice’ book of the month. This issue it is India’s War by Srinath Raghavan. Read the review on page 69
She refers to Sir John Franklin, whose North-West Passage expedition was a failure. But Franklin had previously enjoyed a successful career, fighting at Trafalgar, leading other expeditions and serving as governor of Tasmania. That is why there are statues to him. In the case of the North-West Passage expedition, the record would have looked different if he and his crew had survived, but it was the then-unknown hazard of lead poisoning from new food tins that slowly killed everyone – not incompetence.
I have a different view of ‘ heroic failure’. To me, Britons adm mire personal endeavour and courage, win or lose. And it follows that the greatest personal efforts often also involve a high risk of failure. The populist press relishes stories of defeat as much as of success, thus helping cement the perception in the public mind that we enjoy failure.
Another modern factor is s that our country exhausted and