40 years ago today ...

[Gwylan]

Our world changed forever. No more LSD, no more thinking half-a-crown was a huge amount, no more 10-bob notes, no more tanners...

The old currency seems as old-fashioned as groats and sovereigns now, yet it was a major shock when we changed over.

Anyone know what the last Albion pre-decimal admission fee was? And what did it become?

 

[Return of the Rev]

six shillings 30p

 

[Sussex Nomad]

No but I do remember being able to exchange 7 old penny's for one brand new shiny 1 pence!

 

[The Large One]

Don't know the admission, but I do know that it was a 2-1 home defeat to Shrewsbury Town, keeping us second-bottom in the old Div III.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Don't know the admission, but I do know that it was a 2-1 home defeat to Shrewsbury Town, keeping us second-bottom in the old Div III.

six shillings

 

[Trufflehound]

I blame The Scaffold.

"Decimalise... Decimalisation..."







(Not wishing to be picky by the way, but wasn't it 40 years ago tomorrow...? 15th Feb 71?)

 

[Gwylan]

I blame The Scaffold.

"Decimalise... Decimalisation..."







(Not wishing to be picky by the way, but wasn't it 40 years ago tomorrow...? 15th Feb 71?)

You're right. I've had it in my head for years that it was 14 Feb 1971 - how about that for a false memory?

Apologies - got a bit premature there.

 

[KneeOn]

You're right. I've had it in my head for years that it was 14 Feb 1971 - how about that for a false memory?

Apologies - got a bit premature there.

Thats what she said.

 

[BensGrandad]

That was the start of the rip off. We had a pub in Kings Cross and the price of bottle of Guinnes last night was 1s10d and the new price list showed it at 11p. Also writing as 1971 - last week in Pops Cafe in Worthing you could buy a cheese roll for 7d and cup of tea for 4d under a shilling on decimalisation day it became 5p and 3p = 8 p (1s7d) the same happened with chips in the local chippie 3d of chips became 2p nearly double. The budget always piut 1d on a pint but then that become 1p.

This is probably why at the time the government etc kept on promoting the message, Think Decimal, do not convert it back.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

And unsurprisingly, the very same happened across Europe during the switch to the Euro !!! One reason, of many, to stay out of the Euro.

 

[Blackadder]

Not wishing to be pedantic but it was 15th Feb 1971 we went decimal.

 

[BensGrandad]

Monday 15th February 1971 was officially known as Decimalisation Day but the change over took some time to intergrate cant remember exactly how long but I think that it was 6 months.

 

[cuthbert]

It was a real pain calculating percentages in £ s d, and even would have been awkward if we had calculators.

 

[Nottseagull]

Monday 15th February 1971 was officially known as Decimalisation Day but the change over took some time to intergrate cant remember exactly how long but I think that it was 6 months.

Incorrect on two counts. Firstly, the old copper coins lost their legal tender status immediately on that day, although the banks were obviously obliged to exchange them for new pence for some time thereafter. The silver coins, however, took years to integrate , actually commencing in 1968 when 5p and 10p coins started appearing in change. Being an identical size to shillings and florins, they were interchangeable and circulated alongside each other for several years. The same thing happened in 1969 when the 50p coin was introduced. Due to the short lifespan of ten shilling notes, these coins naturally replaced them much more rapidly.

 

[Biscuit]

Not wishing to be pedantic but it was 15th Feb 1971 we went decimal.

Not wishing to be pedantic but that was pointed out three hours before your post.

 

[pasty]

Being only 6 at the time it didn't really have too much of an impact on me. I do remember I got a very nice Easter Egg in a mug that year though that had a conversion table printed on it

 

[Norman Potting]

No but I do remember being able to exchange 7 old penny's for one brand new shiny 1 pence!

Someone must have seen you coming as one new penny = 2.4 old ones. Probably too late to do anything about it though.

 

[Nottseagull]

That was the start of the rip off. We had a pub in Kings Cross and the price of bottle of Guinnes last night was 1s10d and the new price list showed it at 11p. Also writing as 1971 - last week in Pops Cafe in Worthing you could buy a cheese roll for 7d and cup of tea for 4d under a shilling on decimalisation day it became 5p and 3p = 8 p (1s7d) the same happened with chips in the local chippie 3d of chips became 2p nearly double. The budget always piut 1d on a pint but then that become 1p.

This is probably why at the time the government etc kept on promoting the message, Think Decimal, do not convert it back.

I was twelve at the time and adept at converting the new prices back to the old ones. I, also, remember the cynical profiteering by retailers, and to this day I believe this kick started a surge in the demand for higher wages and was the catalyst for the massive inflation of the mid-1970s. Obviously the huge increase in the price of crude oil that OPEC made had a bigger effect, but the inflationary spiral was well under way by that time.

 

[Blackadder]

Not wishing to be pedantic but that was pointed out three hours before your post.

That will teach me to post quickly at work. I am off for a lie down!

 

[Gwylan]

Incorrect on two counts. Firstly, the old copper coins lost their legal tender status immediately on that day, although the banks were obviously obliged to exchange them for new pence for some time thereafter.

I might not be able to remember the exact date of decimalisation but I do know that this isn't true. There was a jingle in the pre-decimalisation public info films (sung by The Scaffold) that exhorted us to "use your old coppers in six penny lots" as that equated to 2.5p exactly. It wasn't until August of that year that pennies and threepenny bits ceased to be legal tender

Obviously the huge increase in the price of crude oil that OPEC made had a bigger effect, but the inflationary spiral was well under way by that time.

...add the addition of VAT in January 1973 and the Barber engineered boom and you have a quadruple whammy. I can't imagine we'll ever see inflation hitting 22% again.