Kentish Express Ashford & District
Change to ‘funny money’ wasn’t a laughing matter
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Decimalisation in Britain when ‘funny money’ was introduced in 1971. Ted Prangnell returned to England six years after pounds, shillings and pence were replaced and found the country still hadn’t embraced thinking in 10s.
Explaining how his wife had gone to a craftshop in Ashford to order two yards’ of ribbon, he said: “The shopkeeper said, ‘We don’t do yards, we are exclusively metric,’ and then asked, ‘How wide do you want it to be: one inch or halfan-inch?’”
Mr Prangnell, now 86, of Kennington, had been a draughtsman for the then CEGB (Central Electricity Generating Board).
He said: “I was surprised when I returned to find that they were still using the old imperial units.
“The English TV weather forecasts were still being given in Fahrenheit.”
Even today, half a century after our currency changed, the UK is still not in full metrication, part of the same tree as decimalisation.
Our road signs are still in miles, even though we buy our fuel in litres, and many of us still weigh and measure ourselves in stones and pounds and feet and inches.
Mr Prangnell was posted to New Zealand in the early 70s, with his German wife Mechtild. They returned to England in May 1977.
Mr Prangnell said: “In 1970, the N ew Zealand government went metric, no messing. Road signs and so on were all changed. The metric system is essential for modern-day design and engineering, building and so on.”
Alan Jarrett, now leader of Medway Council, was 20 and living near Maidstone, in February 1971.
He said: “I well remember the impact decimalisation had, in as much as all-round prices went up.
“My peer group at the time all noticed the change over the following months and years.
“Whilst there was a great deal of sentimentality attached to pounds, shillings and pence, it was the impact on prices that concerned us the most.
“We all thought it a precursor to us joining the then Common Market, and partly accounts for my lifelong dislike for what became the EU.”
North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale was 27 and living and working as a TV and stage actor in London.
He remembers resistance towards the new currency, labelled “funny money” by sceptics.
He said: “On balance decimalisation was probably a good thing, while retaining the pound sterling.
“But there was a great deal of hostility, particularly from older people and small shopkeepers at the time.
“There is no doubt that it also led to a lot of ‘rounding up’ of prices. The difference? Apart from the price rises and some grumbling, not a lot.”
Banks had to close for four days before February 15, Decimal Day, to prepare for the transformation.
Currency converters were available for everyone and prices in the shops were shown in both types. This helped ease some people’s worries that shopkeepers might use the changeover to increase prices.
People were helped to understand with a two-year public inforcampaign mation by the then Decimal Currency Board. This was through methods
‘There was a great deal of hostility, particularly from older people and small shopkeepers at the time…’
such as public information broadcasts on TV.
One, called Granny Gets the Point, had actress Doris Hare playing an old woman who at first resisted the approaching changeover while her family accepted it.
She told them: “You and your decimals. You’ve all been brainwashed.”
When it happened she got confused and upset, and had nightmares, until her grandson explained it clearly to her. Hare was a star in a popular TV comedy show from that time, On the Buses.
The elderly took more time to adapt but overall the population soon absorbed the currency change.
During the following years those who had been steeped in the previous monetary system often used the phrase: “What’s that in old money?”