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The BOPCRIS website has been changed in January 2008 and the references from there are dead. I have added title and author information that I have been able to find in Google's cache but couldn't update the links properly because the content isn't on the new BOPCRIS site yet. 79.64.202.189 ( talk) 00:39, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, but being a non-British the following is still not clear to me: what happened with the old pennies (d) on D-day; did they increase in value by a factor of 2.4? Was there a parallel usage of old (d) and new (p) pennies?
There was an equivalence calculation done, with these numbers;
(1d 2d) were worth 1p (3d 4d 5d) were worth 2p (6d 7d) were worth 3p (8d 9d 10d) were worth 4p (11d 12d) were worth 5p
i.e. the amount of old coins in brackets were worth the value of the new coin given. Britmax 17:58, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
Part of the campaign leading up to D Day encouraged you to "spend your old coppers in sixpenny lots", where 6d was worth 2.5p.
It was, from the 15th of February until the 31st of August, technically up to the shopkeepers whether to trade in old or new money. However, they had to accept both old and new coins in 6d/2½p quantities. It was common to use a tin or other container under the counter to hold the "wrong" change, and change was always given in whichever was the money used in that shop. Most did change over to decimal almost immediately. A few held off until April, to keep things simple. Very few indeed continued in old money for any length of time, but there was at least one group of businesses in Wednesbury that continued with the old money, finally going decimal on 1 September 1971. Despite this, no cheque dated after 14 February 1971 was acceptable if written in old money.-- EmleyMoor 08:13, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
Further to previous answers, I am certain farthings were in fact taken out of circulation in 1961, not 1959 as stated above, or 1960 as stated in the article.
To the person with the original query, no coins were marked up in value (I know it's hardly helpful that the old and new coinage had the same name, penny!). The best way to think of the switch-over is to remember that both shillings and 5ps are twenty to the pound. So shillings circulated as 5ps because they were exactly the same in relation to a pound. Likewise sixpences could circulate as two-and-a-half new pence, because just as they were previously "half a shilling" and a shilling = 5p, after decimalisation they could circulate as "half a 5p". Lower value coins didn't have an exact "equivalent" in new money, so they didn't remain in circulation. Skd08 ( talk) 17:49, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
This article is funny, but is it NPOV? David.Monniaux 09:20, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
It seems relatively NPOV to me (as a Brit born in 1975 who's geeky about these things), albeit that it gives more detail about Irish coinage than British coinage. Decimalisation seems to be quite a quirky thing here. My mother has a jar full of sixpences, for example (old 6d coins), mainly used for putting in Christmas puddings (it's a tradition thing) and similarly kept old shilling and florin coins when they were phased out, more recently. I think a little of the anecdotal-type content is worth keeping. OwenBlacker 21:45, Jun 2, 2004 (UTC)
The question "What's that in old money?" usually does not relate to money - thirty seven years later, I imagine most people neither know nor care. It is used (by people of a certain age - I'm 46 - and older!) when mentioning a metric (or other "modern") measure and asking what the equivalent was in Imperial (or other "old-fashioned") units. For example, 1m in old money is 40", 37 degrees C in old money is 98.4 degrees F. ( Dommar ( talk) 22:29, 15 February 2008 (UTC))
It seems a little odd, though, that most of this article isn't a part of the content at Pound Sterling, £sd or Decimalization. The commentary and content about the 1970s changeover from £sd to decimal pounds should probably be rationalised into one article. I can attempt to tackle this at some point if noone objects / can be bothered. OwenBlacker 21:45, Jun 2, 2004 (UTC)
A coin of a 20p piece seems odd on an article about decimalisation — the coin didn't exist until over a decade later! I'm gonna comment it out and add 1d and 1p coin images from World Coin Gallery, which grants Wikipedia full permission to use its images — OwenBlacker 19:48, Jul 10, 2004 (UTC)
Presumably a misspelling of 'ducat', 'gold coin formerly current in most European countries' (OED), but why is it being mentioned here? Awien 12:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
Which government thought up the change? - specifically, who was behind it? Why? What was the rationale behind it? Which government implemented it? (Decimal coinage went into circulation in 1968 - this isn't mentioned.) Who were the ministers responsible for it? What factors influenced it? This is a pretty poor article as it doesn't attempt to give any explanation as to why this policy was forced through, but merely covers the implementation. What about public opinion of the policy? Most people were opposed to it; it didn't have a great deal of public support. There were several towns/villages that refused to change for months, in protest; these should be mentioned. Now, I don't know the answers to these questions, but they're pretty important facts. As it stands, this article really doesn't say much of any relevance!
Another important fact: the official name of the currency unit currently in circulation in the UK is new pence - not simply pence, which still legally refers to a 240th of a pound. This seems undermine the 'history of the penny' series somewhat! 62.253.64.13 04:04, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I wonder, was there any consideration of a non-decimal simplification of the coinage? For example, it seems to me that a rather logical system would've been simply to eliminate the penny as a unit altogether, leaving only pounds and shillings. The old threepence and sixpence could then be simply redefined as quarter-shilling and half-shilling. Would've allowed most of the old coins to remain in circulation while eliminating those denominations that had become inconveniently small due to inflation (penny, halfpenny, farthing)
Would also have prevented England from succumbing to the decimalisation craze that's swept other currencies :-)
Also, was there any consideration of replacing pounds and shillings with a new unit of 100 old pence? — Tamfang ( talk) 04:09, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
Further to the above, I don't believe this would have been practical so I'd be surprised if this was ever considered. "Replacing pounds.... with a unit of 100 old pence" would mean the value of a penny stays the same, but the value of a pound drops to 10/24ths of its old value, because it is now only 100 of something when previously it was 240 of them. You can imagine the chaos this would cause with pricing, exchange rates, and so on. It also suggests that the currency is "defined", if you will, in terms of its "small units" (eg pennies), when currencies usually work in terms of a "big unit" (eg pounds) with the "small units" being determined by their relation to it.
Skd08 (
talk) 18:03, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
Having done some research on the subject: various different proposals and suggestions were made from the early 19th century on, including "several verging on the incomprehensible" (eg having a subsidiary unit of which 1.4 would equal the pound): major units included one of 100 pennies up to £5 (paraphrasing "by the time decimalisation will occur, it will be a reasonable figure"). Sir Frederick Hoyle in the early 1960s suggested an octal system and there were duodecimal suggestions, with societies promoting it. Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:53, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
Was it really called D-day in 1971? Even if so, the expression [[D-day] means the 1944 one only now surely? -- JBellis 20:10, 10 September 2005 (UTC)
It was called Decimalisation Day, not Decimal Day. The title of the page is incorrect. But it was definitely known as D-Day.( Dommar ( talk) 22:35, 15 February 2008 (UTC))
"I think" this may be a military/similar usage - D-Day, M-Month etc - so relevant numbers can be put in when needed. Sometimes jargon terms get co-opted for convenience. Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:55, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
It may seem odd that Pounds Shillings and Pence were abbreviated as L S D, rather than P S p. In fact, the letters L S D derive from Anglo-Norman French: Livres, Sols et Deniers.
Shouldn't there be a scale on the images, to show that the old pence coin was much larger ?
-- Beardo 15:04, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
Jmcc150 has edited on the understanding that "The government did not call the new coins pee, the public did", but this conflicts with the cited source on Money slang history which says that "Mostly in return we got the 'Pee' (being the official pronunciation of the abbreviation: p for new pence.)" A source is needed for the current statement that The government hoped that in speech the new units would be called "new pence", but the public decided that it was clearer and quicker to call the new coins "pee". - - dave souza, talk 17:21, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
As a British computer geek of mature years, I am old enough to remember some of the issues that arose when performing arithmetic on monetary quantities in pounds, shillings and pence. In fact, I have a vague memory that the version of COBOL implemented on ICL computers in the 1960's had a special PICTURE clause to handle old money. Can anyone else recollect this? -- Portnadler 09:40, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
Recently (April 2015), media souirces reported that Banks are still using IT systems that calculate in pre-decimal values, and then convert- essentailyl it's because systems have been added to rather than replaced- can't find sources but deserved amention as relevant ands current issue- that we are all probably still unwittingly using "LSD"currecny albeit in a virtual sense — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.84.84.92 ( talk) 00:59, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
It is stated that the term 'tuppence' is rarely heard today. Not only is it part of phrases such as "I wouldn't give you tuppence for that", which is very common here in South Lincolnshire, but I probably hear the word spoken everyday by my customers (yes, I work in a shop!). I think therefore that it might be appropriate to qualify the statement somewhat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.68.104.198 ( talk) 19:41, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
USD equivalent as of when? Decimal day? The time of writing, whenever that was? Needs explaining. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.134.30.41 ( talk) 20:27, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
Image:Irish coin 1p (1980).jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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BetacommandBot ( talk) 19:58, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
Image:British coin 1d (1964).jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
BetacommandBot ( talk) 04:59, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
What became of it? The Decimal Currency Board was wound up in September 1971, ahead of schedule, but there seems to be no indication on what happened to the DA (there is no connection with the Metric Association). Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:59, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
Hm. After all, the only progress toward decimalization for a long time was the florin and then the short lived double florin (1887-1890). It would be nice to know, but I think we can survive without it. Have you checked Google books?-- Wehwalt ( talk) 20:32, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
There are a few 'articles quoted': from the British Library catalogue there was also a 'New Decimal Association', and, using various sources the body persisted to some point in the 20th century. Will see what I can find.
The double florin, according to one reference in The Times, was nicknamed 'the barmaids ruin.' Jackiespeel ( talk) 16:00, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
In the first episode of Doctor Who in 1963 the character Susan mentioned that the decimal system hasn't established yet. This was before the announcement.
Can I add a link to my own article [1]? Some of the 19th suggestions #were# rather impractical or incomprehensible. Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:11, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
As I created the article I wanted to mention it here first. There are procedures for viewing the 'large number of files' mentioned on the catalogue of The National Archives if anyone wishes to pursue the matter.
Examples of the suggestions in The Times - having coins at different values to the face value; 'I don't understand it, so it is too difficult', having an intermediate coin at 100 (old) pennies between the pound of 240 pennies and the penny itself (this is the least incomprehensible part of the suggestion) and various suggestions for a duodecimal base. Some of the arguments against metric are equally 'er what?' - but many boil down to 'it is foreign and unnatural.' Jackiespeel ( talk) 16:09, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
One vestige of the pre-decimal days in Britain, though not Ireland, is reference to e.g. "the 10p tax rate" rather than "the 10% tax rate". While "6d in the £" was perhaps more meaningful to the man in the Clapham omnibus than "2.5%", I don't think "10p in the pound" is any clearer than "10%". On 28 April 2008, an article in The Economist said "To pay for a cut in the basic rate of income tax in his final budget as chancellor last spring, Mr Brown removed the 10p ($0.20) starting rate"; a currency conversion whose absurdity was pointed out in a letter printed the following week.
I have read that some non-obvious odds used by British and Irish bookmakers reflect round figures in pre-decimal stakes, though I don't have examples. 100/30 returns 100d = 8s4d for a stake of 30d = half-a-crown; but 8s4d doesn't seem very round. jnestorius( talk) 16:09, 28 January 2011 (UTC)
The term Decimal Day was also used in other Commonwealth countries as well.
These countries changed their currencies on Decimal Day;
Australia - 14 February 1966 - Australian pound replaced by Australian dollar.
India - 1 April 1957 - [[Indian rupee] decimalised to being 100 Naye Paise instead of 16 Annas.
Malawi - 15 February 1971 - Malawian pound replaced by Malawian kwacha.
New Zealand - 10 July 1967 - New Zealand pound replaced by New Zealand dollar.
Pakistan - 1 January 1961 - Pakistani rupee decimalised to being 100 Pice (or Paisa) instead of 16 Annas.
Rhodesia - 17 February 1970 - Rhodesian pound replaced by Rhodesian dollar.
South Africa - 14 February 1961 - South African pound replaced by South African rand.
Western Samoa - 10 July 1967 - Western Samoan pound replaced by Western Samoan tala.
Someone needs to do some research and add these and other Commonwealth countries' decimal changeovers to the article. - ( 203.211.77.38 ( talk) 09:33, 18 June 2015 (UTC))
I was in (what is now called) Year 5 at primary school on 15 February 1972. It was definitely called __Decimalisation Day__ or __D-Day__, not _Decimal Day_.
There were slogans (jingles) about spending your old money in sixpenny lots.
Part of the process was an official conversion table between amounts in old and new pence, which rounded some amounts up and others down. There were posters, mugs, tea-towels, aprons, you name it, showing this table. It was an important feature of the experience of ordinary people going through decimalisation and it should certainly feature on this Wikipedia page. Unfortunately I don't have a copy of it available, but no doubt it can be found somewhere on the Web, in the various forms that I have mentioned.
I recall an incident at school when the teacher was collecting dinner money (ie for school lunches). The daily rate was some amount (unfortunately I forget how much) that was rounded up, whilst the weekly rate (five days) was rounded down. Someone in my class complained about being made to pay five times the new daily rate instead of the conversion of the weekly one.
Here, for example, is a tea-towel, though this is not the layout of the table that I remember: http://theteatowelsociety.com/photo/tt16/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paul Taylor ( talk • contribs) 13:01, 5 April 2016 (UTC)
Maybe it should be mentioned that also other states had thes Decimal Day: South Africa: 10 Shilling became 1 Rand, Australia: 10 Shilling became 1 Au$. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.147.195.18 ( talk) 11:38, 13 April 2016 (UTC) 80.147.195.18 ( talk) 11:39, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
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The following comment was posted by
User:Safinaskar to the main article in
this edit. Since this appears to have been intended as a talk page comment, I am reproducing it below. --
Ahecht (
TALK
PAGE) 01:52, 1 May 2018 (UTC)
Dear Wikipedia editors! Decimal Day and Shilling (British coin) contradict to each other! (As on 30 Apr 2018 22:00 UTC) I am not native English speaker, so I can be wrong. So, double-check my calculations.
Decimal Day says this: "the pound was made up of 240 pence (denoted by the letter d for Latin denarius and now referred to as "old pence"), with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings (denoted by s for Latin solidus) in a pound".
So, Decimal Day says that right before Decimal Day we have: 1 pound = 20 shillings and 1 shilling = 12 pence.
Shilling (British coin) says: "The shilling (1/-) was a coin worth one twentieth of a pound sterling, or twelve pence".
I am not native English speaker, but it seems for me that "one twentieth" means "1/12" and "twelve" means "20" (correct me if I am wrong!).
So, Shilling (British coin) says that 1 shilling is 1/12 of pound and also 1 shilling is 20 pence.
So, Shilling (British coin) says that right before Decimal Day we have: 1 pound = 12 shillings and 1 shilling = 20 pence.
So, we see clear contradiction here. Please, think VERY carefully and fix it.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Safinaskar ( talk • contribs) 22:20, 30 April 2018 (UTC)
"Sixpence is two and a half new pence"
"Use your old money in sixpenny lots"
We should cover these if possible.
All the best:
Rich
Farmbrough, 16:10, 27 November 2019 (UTC).
No mention here of the fact (I have no evidence other than memory) that there was an 18-month transition period planned during which shops would be required to take both old and new money; but in practice adoption was so rapid that the transition period was quickly shortened.
There was also a big "save the tanner" campaign in the tabloid media (to retain the 6d coin, now worth 2.5p). I remember the bus companies pushing for this rather vigorously.
Surprisingly little comment in the media today about the 50th anniversary. Mhkay ( talk) 10:34, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
Are there any notable organisations or individuals that call, or have called, for the reintroduction of a pound worth 20 shillings of 12 pence each? Considering the wave of reactionary sentiment accompanying Brexit, I could imagine a significant portion of the British population supporting that idea. Steinbach ( talk) 20:24, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
In 1971, I worked in a furniture shop and we had £.s.p. in our tills until the close of day on 27th February, the day I was married. The shop was closed on Sunday as most shops were. The lady that I worked with was furious with me as she had to change both the bought ledgers (mine) and her own sales ledgers before the shop opened on Monday. The new currency was then introduced on Monday 1st March. So I have always been under the impression that the official day was Monday 1st March. Well, that was how it was in Clemersons &Sons Ltd. 2A00:23C1:9D80:700:1074:1B:6253:5E02 ( talk) 22:14, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
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A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on February 15, 2005, February 15, 2006, February 15, 2007, February 15, 2008, February 15, 2009, February 15, 2010, and February 15, 2011. |
The BOPCRIS website has been changed in January 2008 and the references from there are dead. I have added title and author information that I have been able to find in Google's cache but couldn't update the links properly because the content isn't on the new BOPCRIS site yet. 79.64.202.189 ( talk) 00:39, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, but being a non-British the following is still not clear to me: what happened with the old pennies (d) on D-day; did they increase in value by a factor of 2.4? Was there a parallel usage of old (d) and new (p) pennies?
There was an equivalence calculation done, with these numbers;
(1d 2d) were worth 1p (3d 4d 5d) were worth 2p (6d 7d) were worth 3p (8d 9d 10d) were worth 4p (11d 12d) were worth 5p
i.e. the amount of old coins in brackets were worth the value of the new coin given. Britmax 17:58, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
Part of the campaign leading up to D Day encouraged you to "spend your old coppers in sixpenny lots", where 6d was worth 2.5p.
It was, from the 15th of February until the 31st of August, technically up to the shopkeepers whether to trade in old or new money. However, they had to accept both old and new coins in 6d/2½p quantities. It was common to use a tin or other container under the counter to hold the "wrong" change, and change was always given in whichever was the money used in that shop. Most did change over to decimal almost immediately. A few held off until April, to keep things simple. Very few indeed continued in old money for any length of time, but there was at least one group of businesses in Wednesbury that continued with the old money, finally going decimal on 1 September 1971. Despite this, no cheque dated after 14 February 1971 was acceptable if written in old money.-- EmleyMoor 08:13, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
Further to previous answers, I am certain farthings were in fact taken out of circulation in 1961, not 1959 as stated above, or 1960 as stated in the article.
To the person with the original query, no coins were marked up in value (I know it's hardly helpful that the old and new coinage had the same name, penny!). The best way to think of the switch-over is to remember that both shillings and 5ps are twenty to the pound. So shillings circulated as 5ps because they were exactly the same in relation to a pound. Likewise sixpences could circulate as two-and-a-half new pence, because just as they were previously "half a shilling" and a shilling = 5p, after decimalisation they could circulate as "half a 5p". Lower value coins didn't have an exact "equivalent" in new money, so they didn't remain in circulation. Skd08 ( talk) 17:49, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
This article is funny, but is it NPOV? David.Monniaux 09:20, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
It seems relatively NPOV to me (as a Brit born in 1975 who's geeky about these things), albeit that it gives more detail about Irish coinage than British coinage. Decimalisation seems to be quite a quirky thing here. My mother has a jar full of sixpences, for example (old 6d coins), mainly used for putting in Christmas puddings (it's a tradition thing) and similarly kept old shilling and florin coins when they were phased out, more recently. I think a little of the anecdotal-type content is worth keeping. OwenBlacker 21:45, Jun 2, 2004 (UTC)
The question "What's that in old money?" usually does not relate to money - thirty seven years later, I imagine most people neither know nor care. It is used (by people of a certain age - I'm 46 - and older!) when mentioning a metric (or other "modern") measure and asking what the equivalent was in Imperial (or other "old-fashioned") units. For example, 1m in old money is 40", 37 degrees C in old money is 98.4 degrees F. ( Dommar ( talk) 22:29, 15 February 2008 (UTC))
It seems a little odd, though, that most of this article isn't a part of the content at Pound Sterling, £sd or Decimalization. The commentary and content about the 1970s changeover from £sd to decimal pounds should probably be rationalised into one article. I can attempt to tackle this at some point if noone objects / can be bothered. OwenBlacker 21:45, Jun 2, 2004 (UTC)
A coin of a 20p piece seems odd on an article about decimalisation — the coin didn't exist until over a decade later! I'm gonna comment it out and add 1d and 1p coin images from World Coin Gallery, which grants Wikipedia full permission to use its images — OwenBlacker 19:48, Jul 10, 2004 (UTC)
Presumably a misspelling of 'ducat', 'gold coin formerly current in most European countries' (OED), but why is it being mentioned here? Awien 12:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
Which government thought up the change? - specifically, who was behind it? Why? What was the rationale behind it? Which government implemented it? (Decimal coinage went into circulation in 1968 - this isn't mentioned.) Who were the ministers responsible for it? What factors influenced it? This is a pretty poor article as it doesn't attempt to give any explanation as to why this policy was forced through, but merely covers the implementation. What about public opinion of the policy? Most people were opposed to it; it didn't have a great deal of public support. There were several towns/villages that refused to change for months, in protest; these should be mentioned. Now, I don't know the answers to these questions, but they're pretty important facts. As it stands, this article really doesn't say much of any relevance!
Another important fact: the official name of the currency unit currently in circulation in the UK is new pence - not simply pence, which still legally refers to a 240th of a pound. This seems undermine the 'history of the penny' series somewhat! 62.253.64.13 04:04, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I wonder, was there any consideration of a non-decimal simplification of the coinage? For example, it seems to me that a rather logical system would've been simply to eliminate the penny as a unit altogether, leaving only pounds and shillings. The old threepence and sixpence could then be simply redefined as quarter-shilling and half-shilling. Would've allowed most of the old coins to remain in circulation while eliminating those denominations that had become inconveniently small due to inflation (penny, halfpenny, farthing)
Would also have prevented England from succumbing to the decimalisation craze that's swept other currencies :-)
Also, was there any consideration of replacing pounds and shillings with a new unit of 100 old pence? — Tamfang ( talk) 04:09, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
Further to the above, I don't believe this would have been practical so I'd be surprised if this was ever considered. "Replacing pounds.... with a unit of 100 old pence" would mean the value of a penny stays the same, but the value of a pound drops to 10/24ths of its old value, because it is now only 100 of something when previously it was 240 of them. You can imagine the chaos this would cause with pricing, exchange rates, and so on. It also suggests that the currency is "defined", if you will, in terms of its "small units" (eg pennies), when currencies usually work in terms of a "big unit" (eg pounds) with the "small units" being determined by their relation to it.
Skd08 (
talk) 18:03, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
Having done some research on the subject: various different proposals and suggestions were made from the early 19th century on, including "several verging on the incomprehensible" (eg having a subsidiary unit of which 1.4 would equal the pound): major units included one of 100 pennies up to £5 (paraphrasing "by the time decimalisation will occur, it will be a reasonable figure"). Sir Frederick Hoyle in the early 1960s suggested an octal system and there were duodecimal suggestions, with societies promoting it. Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:53, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
Was it really called D-day in 1971? Even if so, the expression [[D-day] means the 1944 one only now surely? -- JBellis 20:10, 10 September 2005 (UTC)
It was called Decimalisation Day, not Decimal Day. The title of the page is incorrect. But it was definitely known as D-Day.( Dommar ( talk) 22:35, 15 February 2008 (UTC))
"I think" this may be a military/similar usage - D-Day, M-Month etc - so relevant numbers can be put in when needed. Sometimes jargon terms get co-opted for convenience. Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:55, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
It may seem odd that Pounds Shillings and Pence were abbreviated as L S D, rather than P S p. In fact, the letters L S D derive from Anglo-Norman French: Livres, Sols et Deniers.
Shouldn't there be a scale on the images, to show that the old pence coin was much larger ?
-- Beardo 15:04, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
Jmcc150 has edited on the understanding that "The government did not call the new coins pee, the public did", but this conflicts with the cited source on Money slang history which says that "Mostly in return we got the 'Pee' (being the official pronunciation of the abbreviation: p for new pence.)" A source is needed for the current statement that The government hoped that in speech the new units would be called "new pence", but the public decided that it was clearer and quicker to call the new coins "pee". - - dave souza, talk 17:21, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
As a British computer geek of mature years, I am old enough to remember some of the issues that arose when performing arithmetic on monetary quantities in pounds, shillings and pence. In fact, I have a vague memory that the version of COBOL implemented on ICL computers in the 1960's had a special PICTURE clause to handle old money. Can anyone else recollect this? -- Portnadler 09:40, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
Recently (April 2015), media souirces reported that Banks are still using IT systems that calculate in pre-decimal values, and then convert- essentailyl it's because systems have been added to rather than replaced- can't find sources but deserved amention as relevant ands current issue- that we are all probably still unwittingly using "LSD"currecny albeit in a virtual sense — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.84.84.92 ( talk) 00:59, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
It is stated that the term 'tuppence' is rarely heard today. Not only is it part of phrases such as "I wouldn't give you tuppence for that", which is very common here in South Lincolnshire, but I probably hear the word spoken everyday by my customers (yes, I work in a shop!). I think therefore that it might be appropriate to qualify the statement somewhat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.68.104.198 ( talk) 19:41, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
USD equivalent as of when? Decimal day? The time of writing, whenever that was? Needs explaining. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.134.30.41 ( talk) 20:27, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
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BetacommandBot ( talk) 19:58, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
Image:British coin 1d (1964).jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
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BetacommandBot ( talk) 04:59, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
What became of it? The Decimal Currency Board was wound up in September 1971, ahead of schedule, but there seems to be no indication on what happened to the DA (there is no connection with the Metric Association). Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:59, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
Hm. After all, the only progress toward decimalization for a long time was the florin and then the short lived double florin (1887-1890). It would be nice to know, but I think we can survive without it. Have you checked Google books?-- Wehwalt ( talk) 20:32, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
There are a few 'articles quoted': from the British Library catalogue there was also a 'New Decimal Association', and, using various sources the body persisted to some point in the 20th century. Will see what I can find.
The double florin, according to one reference in The Times, was nicknamed 'the barmaids ruin.' Jackiespeel ( talk) 16:00, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
In the first episode of Doctor Who in 1963 the character Susan mentioned that the decimal system hasn't established yet. This was before the announcement.
Can I add a link to my own article [1]? Some of the 19th suggestions #were# rather impractical or incomprehensible. Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:11, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
As I created the article I wanted to mention it here first. There are procedures for viewing the 'large number of files' mentioned on the catalogue of The National Archives if anyone wishes to pursue the matter.
Examples of the suggestions in The Times - having coins at different values to the face value; 'I don't understand it, so it is too difficult', having an intermediate coin at 100 (old) pennies between the pound of 240 pennies and the penny itself (this is the least incomprehensible part of the suggestion) and various suggestions for a duodecimal base. Some of the arguments against metric are equally 'er what?' - but many boil down to 'it is foreign and unnatural.' Jackiespeel ( talk) 16:09, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
One vestige of the pre-decimal days in Britain, though not Ireland, is reference to e.g. "the 10p tax rate" rather than "the 10% tax rate". While "6d in the £" was perhaps more meaningful to the man in the Clapham omnibus than "2.5%", I don't think "10p in the pound" is any clearer than "10%". On 28 April 2008, an article in The Economist said "To pay for a cut in the basic rate of income tax in his final budget as chancellor last spring, Mr Brown removed the 10p ($0.20) starting rate"; a currency conversion whose absurdity was pointed out in a letter printed the following week.
I have read that some non-obvious odds used by British and Irish bookmakers reflect round figures in pre-decimal stakes, though I don't have examples. 100/30 returns 100d = 8s4d for a stake of 30d = half-a-crown; but 8s4d doesn't seem very round. jnestorius( talk) 16:09, 28 January 2011 (UTC)
The term Decimal Day was also used in other Commonwealth countries as well.
These countries changed their currencies on Decimal Day;
Australia - 14 February 1966 - Australian pound replaced by Australian dollar.
India - 1 April 1957 - [[Indian rupee] decimalised to being 100 Naye Paise instead of 16 Annas.
Malawi - 15 February 1971 - Malawian pound replaced by Malawian kwacha.
New Zealand - 10 July 1967 - New Zealand pound replaced by New Zealand dollar.
Pakistan - 1 January 1961 - Pakistani rupee decimalised to being 100 Pice (or Paisa) instead of 16 Annas.
Rhodesia - 17 February 1970 - Rhodesian pound replaced by Rhodesian dollar.
South Africa - 14 February 1961 - South African pound replaced by South African rand.
Western Samoa - 10 July 1967 - Western Samoan pound replaced by Western Samoan tala.
Someone needs to do some research and add these and other Commonwealth countries' decimal changeovers to the article. - ( 203.211.77.38 ( talk) 09:33, 18 June 2015 (UTC))
I was in (what is now called) Year 5 at primary school on 15 February 1972. It was definitely called __Decimalisation Day__ or __D-Day__, not _Decimal Day_.
There were slogans (jingles) about spending your old money in sixpenny lots.
Part of the process was an official conversion table between amounts in old and new pence, which rounded some amounts up and others down. There were posters, mugs, tea-towels, aprons, you name it, showing this table. It was an important feature of the experience of ordinary people going through decimalisation and it should certainly feature on this Wikipedia page. Unfortunately I don't have a copy of it available, but no doubt it can be found somewhere on the Web, in the various forms that I have mentioned.
I recall an incident at school when the teacher was collecting dinner money (ie for school lunches). The daily rate was some amount (unfortunately I forget how much) that was rounded up, whilst the weekly rate (five days) was rounded down. Someone in my class complained about being made to pay five times the new daily rate instead of the conversion of the weekly one.
Here, for example, is a tea-towel, though this is not the layout of the table that I remember: http://theteatowelsociety.com/photo/tt16/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paul Taylor ( talk • contribs) 13:01, 5 April 2016 (UTC)
Maybe it should be mentioned that also other states had thes Decimal Day: South Africa: 10 Shilling became 1 Rand, Australia: 10 Shilling became 1 Au$. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.147.195.18 ( talk) 11:38, 13 April 2016 (UTC) 80.147.195.18 ( talk) 11:39, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
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The following comment was posted by
User:Safinaskar to the main article in
this edit. Since this appears to have been intended as a talk page comment, I am reproducing it below. --
Ahecht (
TALK
PAGE) 01:52, 1 May 2018 (UTC)
Dear Wikipedia editors! Decimal Day and Shilling (British coin) contradict to each other! (As on 30 Apr 2018 22:00 UTC) I am not native English speaker, so I can be wrong. So, double-check my calculations.
Decimal Day says this: "the pound was made up of 240 pence (denoted by the letter d for Latin denarius and now referred to as "old pence"), with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings (denoted by s for Latin solidus) in a pound".
So, Decimal Day says that right before Decimal Day we have: 1 pound = 20 shillings and 1 shilling = 12 pence.
Shilling (British coin) says: "The shilling (1/-) was a coin worth one twentieth of a pound sterling, or twelve pence".
I am not native English speaker, but it seems for me that "one twentieth" means "1/12" and "twelve" means "20" (correct me if I am wrong!).
So, Shilling (British coin) says that 1 shilling is 1/12 of pound and also 1 shilling is 20 pence.
So, Shilling (British coin) says that right before Decimal Day we have: 1 pound = 12 shillings and 1 shilling = 20 pence.
So, we see clear contradiction here. Please, think VERY carefully and fix it.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Safinaskar ( talk • contribs) 22:20, 30 April 2018 (UTC)
"Sixpence is two and a half new pence"
"Use your old money in sixpenny lots"
We should cover these if possible.
All the best:
Rich
Farmbrough, 16:10, 27 November 2019 (UTC).
No mention here of the fact (I have no evidence other than memory) that there was an 18-month transition period planned during which shops would be required to take both old and new money; but in practice adoption was so rapid that the transition period was quickly shortened.
There was also a big "save the tanner" campaign in the tabloid media (to retain the 6d coin, now worth 2.5p). I remember the bus companies pushing for this rather vigorously.
Surprisingly little comment in the media today about the 50th anniversary. Mhkay ( talk) 10:34, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
Are there any notable organisations or individuals that call, or have called, for the reintroduction of a pound worth 20 shillings of 12 pence each? Considering the wave of reactionary sentiment accompanying Brexit, I could imagine a significant portion of the British population supporting that idea. Steinbach ( talk) 20:24, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
In 1971, I worked in a furniture shop and we had £.s.p. in our tills until the close of day on 27th February, the day I was married. The shop was closed on Sunday as most shops were. The lady that I worked with was furious with me as she had to change both the bought ledgers (mine) and her own sales ledgers before the shop opened on Monday. The new currency was then introduced on Monday 1st March. So I have always been under the impression that the official day was Monday 1st March. Well, that was how it was in Clemersons &Sons Ltd. 2A00:23C1:9D80:700:1074:1B:6253:5E02 ( talk) 22:14, 28 January 2022 (UTC)