The theme for this month is - Decimalisation
15 February is the fiftieth anniversary of Decimal
Day in Britain when the new currency system was formally introduced. The great
British public preferred counting from one to twelve rather stopping at ten.
The number twelve divided by two or four.
The process of introducing the new coins had
started some years before. It led to nostalgia about the loss of well-loved
coins such as the penny, florin and halfcrown, along with nicknames and years
of history. There was always a feeling amongst certain generation that coins
had a value that modern coins do not. This included getting sixpence or
threepence pocket money, handling bright shiny pennies or been given a
halfcrown by a well off uncle. If you had a florin in pocket you had a lot of
money. The modern new pence did not look much and there only multiples of pence
not shillings.
Decimalisation itself brought inflation and this
led to the reduction in size of coins and further disappearance of favourites.
“New pee” did not sound right and many people thought the designs were bland.
Many coin collectors bewailed the loss of history
but there was a short lived “check your change” enthusiasm for rare dates on
pre decimal coins. In the 1960s and 1970s it was possible to find coins from
the reigns of George V and Edward VII and even from the reign of Victoria. The
Royal Mint issued older coins into circulation.
Shops had posters with conversion charts and “ready
reckoner” booklets were available to buy. These were sometimes ignored. I was
once due three old pence change and given a new penny. Fortunately I got over it…
eventually.
A substantial publicity campaign took place in the weeks before Decimal Day, including a song by the singer and entertainer, Max Bygraves called "Decimalisation".
The BBC broadcast a series of five minute
programmes, titled "Decimal Five", to which The Scaffold contributed
some specially written tunes.
Things did improve with introduction of innovative
designs such as the twenty pence and the twelve sided pound coin, the shield
design of Matthew Dent in 2008 and the wide range of commemorative 50p and two
pound coins.
Timeline
In 1824, Parliament rejected proposals to
decimalise sterling, which were prompted by the introduction of the French
franc three decades earlier.
Silver florin, first issued on 1849.
A double florin
introduced in 1887, was struck only between 1887 and 1890.
The Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage reported
in 1920 that the only feasible scheme was to divide the pound into 1,000 mills (the pound
and mill system, first proposed in 1824
In 1960, the Government to set up the Committee
of the Inquiry on Decimal Currency in 1961, which reported in 1963.
Decimal Currency Act of
May 1969.
In October 1969, the 50p coin was introduced.
The old halfpenny was withdrawn from
circulation on 31 July 1969, and the half-crown followed on 31 December
Banks were closed from 3:30 pm on Wednesday 10
February 1971 to 10:00 am on Monday 15 February to enable all outstanding
cheques and credits in the clearing system to be processed and customers'
account balances to be converted from £sd to decimal. In many banks, the
conversion was done manually, as few bank branches were then computerised.
February had been chosen for Decimal Day because it was the quietest time of
the year for the banks, shops and transport organisations.
On 31 August 1971, the 1d and 3d were officially
withdrawn from circulation, ending the transition period to decimal currency.
The decimal halfpenny which had been introduced in 1971, remained in circulation until 1984,
The 50p
piece was reduced in size in 1997, following the reduction in size of the 5p in
1990 and the 10p in 1992 (the large versions of all the three have been
demonetised). The 1p and 2p underwent a compositional change from bronze to
plated steel in 1992. However, both coins remain valid back to 1971, the only
circulating coins on Decimal Day that are still valid.
In 1982, the word "new" in "new
penny" or "new pence" was removed from the inscriptions on
coins, and was replaced by the number of pence in the denomination (for
example, "ten pence" or "fifty pence"). This coincided with
the introduction of a new 20p coin, which from the outset bore
simply the legend "twenty pence". The £1 coin was introduced in
1983, and a £2 coin in 1997.
