The new decimal money will be with us on D-Day.
Decimal Day.
The 15th February 1971.
Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and in Ireland was on 15 February 1971, the day on which
each country decimalised its respective currency of pounds, shillings, and pence.
In the United Kingdom, the British pound was made up of 20 shillings, each of which was
made up of 12 pence, a total of 240 pence.
With the decimalisation, the pound kept its old value and name, and the only changes were
in relation to the subunits.
The shilling was abolished, and the pound was subdivided into 100 "new pence" (abbreviated
"p"), each of which was worth 2.4 "old pence" (which were abbreviated "d").
In Ireland, the Irish pound had a similar £sd currency structure and similar changes
took place.
In 1960, various reports, and the success of decimalisation in South Africa, prompted
the Government to set up the Halsbury Committee in 1961, which reported in 1963.
The adoption of the changes suggested in the report was announced on 1 March 1966.
The Decimal Currency Board was created to manage the transition, although the plans
were not approved by Parliament until the Decimal Currency Act in May 1969.
Under the new system, the pound was retained but was divided into 100 new pence, denoted
by the symbol p.
New coinage was issued alongside the old coins.
The 5p and 10p coins were introduced in April 1968 and were the same size, composition,
and value as the shilling and two shillings coins in circulation with them.
In October 1969 the 50p coin was introduced, with the 10s note withdrawn on 20 November 1970.
This reduced the number of new coins that had to be introduced on Decimal Day and meant
that the public was already familiar with three of the six new coins.
Small booklets were made available containing some or all of the new denominations.
The old halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation on 31 July 1969, and the half-crown (2s 6d)
followed on 31 December to ease the transition.
There was a substantial publicity campaign in the weeks before Decimalisation Day, including
a song by Max Bygraves called "Decimalisation".
The BBC broadcast a series of five-minute programmes, "Decimal Five", to which The Scaffold
contributed some specially written tunes.
ITV repeatedly broadcast a short drama called "Granny Gets The Point", starring Doris Hare,
the actress in "On The Buses", where an elderly woman who does not understand the new system
is taught to use it by her grandson.
At 10 am on 15 February itself (and again the following week) BBC1 broadcast 'New Money
Day', a 'Merry-go-Round' schools' programme in which puppet maker Peter Firmin and his
small friend Muskit encountered different prices and new coins when they went to the shops.
Banks received stocks of the new coins in advance and these were issued to retailers
shortly before Decimalisation Day to enable them to give change immediately after the
changeover.
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 most bank branches were not yet computerised.
February had been chosen for Decimal Day because it was the quietest time of the year for the
banks, shops, and transport organisations.
Many items were priced in both currencies for some time before and after.
Prior to Decimal Day the double pricing was displayed as the old price first then the
new price.
From Decimal Day the order was switched to the new price first then the old price.
Exceptions to the 15 February introduction were British Rail and London Transport, which
went decimal one day early, the former urging customers, if they chose to use pennies or
threepenny pieces, to pay them in multiples of 6d.
Bus companies were another exception, going decimal on Sunday 21 February.
Decimal Day itself went smoothly.
Criticisms included the small size of the new halfpenny coin and the fact that some
traders had taken advantage of the transition to raise prices.
Some used new pennies as sixpences in vending machines.
After 15 February, shops continued to accept payment in old coins, but always issued change
in new coins.
The old coins were returned to the banks and in this way the bulk of them were quickly
taken out of circulation.
The new halfpenny, penny, and twopence coins were introduced on 15 February 1971.
Within two weeks of Decimal Day, the old penny (1d) and old threepenny (3d) coins had left
circulation, and old sixpences were becoming rare.
On 31 August 1971, the 1d and 3d were officially withdrawn from circulation, ending the transition
period.
The government intended that in speech the new units would be called "new pence", but
the public decided that it was clearer and quicker to pronounce the new coins as "pee".
Shortenings such as "tuppence" are now rarely heard, and terms such as "tanner" (the silver
sixpence), which previously designated amounts of money, are no longer used.
However, some slang terms, such as "quid" and "bob", survived from pre-decimal times.
Amounts denominated in guineas (21s or £1.05) are reserved for specialist transactions,
such as the sale of horses and some auctions.
The public information campaign over the preceding two years helped, and the willingness of a
young population to embrace the change also helped.
In general, elderly people had much more difficulty adapting and the phrase "How much is that
in old money?" or even "How much is that in real money?" became associated with those
who struggled with the change.
(This phrase is now often used to ask for conversion between metric and imperial weights
and measures.)