What’s that in old money? Here goes
Today were are talking about D-Day. Not June 6,
1944, but February 15, 1971. Decimalisation Day.
It was the day that the UK (and Ireland) officially switched over from its old pounds, shillings and pence to the system of just pounds and pence.
It was the end of a long tradition. The old currency was known as lsd and that was because it had its origins in the Roman period - lsd stood for librum, solidus, denarius which had been Roman coins. (Though some might say we still have a Roman link, since “decimal” comes from the Roman word decimus meaning 10.)
For younger readers it might be necessary to explain prior to 1971, there were 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings (or 240 pennies) to the pound. Posh shops also priced items in guineas, which was 21 shillings - although the guinea coin had already long since gone out of circulation. However there was still a rich plethora of coins: there was the half-crown worth two shillings and sixpence, the florin (worth two shillings) the shilling itself, the sixpenny bit (otherwise known as the tanner), the oddly shaped thruppenny bit (worth three pennies), the penny, half-penny and the farthing (quarter penny).
The farthing had in fact already been withdrawn from circulation well before D-Day having become next to worthless thanks to inflation, which was a pity, as it was the prettiest coin, with a picture of awrenonit.
Sharp-eyed shoppers will see it depicted on the facade of Bar 6 at the end of Middle Row in Maidstone (as this building used to be a bank).
The pound in 1971 was not the coin that we know today but rather a green banknote, though the favourite of many children was the 10 shilling note (or 10-bob note) which was the treat most commonly slipped inside birthday cards by aunts and uncles. It looked pink, but was officially a combination of mauve and grey.
Britain had considered abandoning its old lsd system in favour of decimal as early as 1824 when Parliament set up a committee to look into the matter. Nothing came of it at the time, although Russia had been the first to adopt a decimal system in 1704, and the idea had gained much momentum after Napoleon converted the French Franc to decimal in 1795 following the French Revolution.
It was not until 1961, when South Africa successfully moved to decimalisation that Britain again set up a Committee of Inquiry into the possibility of switching. Following the committee’s positive report the decision to switch was finally taken by the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s Government on on March 1,1966, and passed into law as the Decimal Currency Act in May 1969. Despite there being an official D-Day, the switch was made over several years.
The new 5p and 10p coins were introduced three years before and were used as exact replacements for the shilling and florin.
The 10 shilling note was removed in 1969 and replaced with the new heptagonal 50p piece.
To prepare the nation for the changeover, the Decimal Currency Board was set up, headed by Lord Fiske, which ran an extensive public information campaign for two years prior to the switch-over. Children began to be taught in decimal in schools. Shop staff were trained in giving change in the new money and the massive task of converting the nation’s cash tills from old money to new had begun. Shopowners who bought new decimal tills where given a subsidy by the Government. Those who chose the cheaper option of converting their existing tills had to bear the cost themselves.
When first introduced, the new 5p and10p pieces were exactly the same shape and weight as the old coins they replaced in order to reduce the necessity for converting vending machines and parking meters.(In the years since then both coins have shrunk in size.)
The General Post Office, then running our phone systems, had a slot for sixpenny pieces in its phone boxes (the equivalent of two and a half new pence). It converted these to take the new 2p coin, which looked like callers made a saving, but the GPO compensated by reducing the amount of time you got for your call.
The total cost to the nation of the conversion was estimated at £120 million (roughly £4 billion in today’s prices).
But the Government insisted the long-run savings of having an easier system to work would far out-weigh that.
The public’s biggest fear was that shopkeepers would use the confusion of the changeover to put up prices. Lord Fiske appeared in frequent TV adverts and public newsreels to assure everyone this would not be the case and all shops were encouraged to display conversion tables after D-Day so shoppers could quickly check the new price in “old money.”
Privately Lord Fiske conceded prices would rise and decimalisation would get the blame - but the cause would actually be not decimalisation itself but inflation which was then running at 9.4% a year. One hiccup ahead of D-Day was when some customers attempted to write cheques in the new currency of pounds and pence - the banks refused to accept them until February 15.
Ahead of D-Day all the banks closed for four days to prepare for the switchover, but the old currency was not withdrawn immediately. Customers could continue to pay with their old coins, but would receive change in the new coinage. Originally it was planned old money would be phased out of circulation over 18 months, but as it turned out, the old penny, halfpenny and threepenny coins were officially taken out of circulation as early as August 1971.
The pound note continued in circulation until 1988 and also ran concurrently with the £1 coin for a time, after the coin was introduced in 1983.
At first the Government encouraged everyone to refer to the new currency as “new pence” as in “one pound and three new pence”.
Somewhere along the line the public made up their own mind and talked of “one pound and three pee.”
Decimal Day ran almost without a hitch. At first a frequently heard question was “How much is that in old money?”
The phrase is still heard today, but usually ironically when someone queries what a metric weight would be in pounds and ounces, or a metric distance in feet and inches.
If you have a memory of D-day call Alan Smith on 01622 695666 or email ajsmith@ thekmgroup.co.uk