Re:Pre-decimal currency (was: Absent posters (Trivia)


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Posted by eclrh on June 25, 2009 at 12:06:02 user eclrh.

In Reply to: Re:Pre-decimal currency (was: Absent posters (Trivia) posted by Alan Hakim on June 25, 2009 at 09:56:35:

Farthings ceased to be legal tender at the end of 1960, when I was 11. They had ceased to be useful by then. I remember being shown a farthing by my parents, but I have no recollection of ever carrying one with the intention to spend it, or seeing anything on sale with a price that ended with an odd farthing.

Somebody gave 1966 as the date of decimalisation. Maybe that was the date when the last old coins were struck. The big changeover (D-day) was actually in Feb 1971, when old pennies and ha'pennies ceased to be legal tender.

The process first became visible to the general public in 1968 with the introduction of 5p and 10p coins, which were the same size and colour as the old coins of equal value that they replaced (1/- and 2/-). In 1969 the heptagonal 50p was introduced, replacing the ten-shilling note. 20p coins came much later.

In the first years after D-day, coins worth 0.5p and 2.5p existed (the latter being the same size and colour as the old sixpence).

Half-crowns (worth 2/6 in old money) were in use right up to D-day. I can't remember whether they continued after that, worth 12.5p. Probably not. The only full crowns I ever saw were minted for special occasions and with a market value exceeding their face value of 5/-.

It was curious that florins (2/-) and half-crowns (2/6) coexisted for so long.




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