40 years on

[Geoff T 3]

For reasons lost to the mists of time, we used to eat Polo mints in 5th form maths lessons. A packet of Polos cost 4d, which as of today was redefined as 1.5p. I realised that three packets, which formerly cost a shilling, would now cost 4.5p - a saving of a whole new halfpenny. So reader, I bought them. Thus on 15 February 1971, with a clear eye for a bargain, I made my first fully decimal purchase and saw those funny new bronze coins at first hand. Life-changing, when you come to think of it.

Can anyone else d'un certain age remember their experiences of D-Day?

Geoff

[davidrj 194]

For reasons lost to the mists of time, we used to eat Polo mints in 5th form maths lessons. A packet of Polos cost 4d, which as of today was redefined as 1.5p. I realised that three packets, which formerly cost a shilling, would now cost 4.5p - a saving of a whole new halfpenny. So reader, I bought them. Thus on 15 February 1971, with a clear eye for a bargain, I made my first fully decimal purchase and saw those funny new bronze coins at first hand. Life-changing, when you come to think of it.

Can anyone else d'un certain age remember their experiences of D-Day?

Geoff

I took a bus to work (2 stops and I normally walked) just so I could get some decimal change

David

[Red Riley 2]

For reasons lost to the mists of time, we used to eat Polo mints in 5th form maths lessons. A packet of Polos cost 4d, which as of today was redefined as 1.5p. I realised that three packets, which formerly cost a shilling, would now cost 4.5p - a saving of a whole new halfpenny. So reader, I bought them. Thus on 15 February 1971, with a clear eye for a bargain, I made my first fully decimal purchase and saw those funny new bronze coins at first hand. Life-changing, when you come to think of it.

Can anyone else d'un certain age remember their experiences of D-Day?

Geoff

I was right at the front end working the till in my Dad's shop on the actual day. Lot of confused pensioners who just trusted what you gave them. Being young, it never really bothered me - I used to have more trouble with Quadruple Green Shield stamps

[Beebman 2]

For reasons lost to the mists of time, we used to eat Polo mints in 5th form maths lessons. A packet of Polos cost 4d, which as of today was redefined as 1.5p. I realised that three packets, which formerly cost a shilling, would now cost 4.5p - a saving of a whole new halfpenny. So reader, I bought them. Thus on 15 February 1971, with a clear eye for a bargain, I made my first fully decimal purchase and saw those funny new bronze coins at first hand. Life-changing, when you come to think of it.

Can anyone else d'un certain age remember their experiences of D-Day?

Geoff

I was right at the front end working the till in my Dad's shop on the actual day. Lot of confused pensioners who just trusted what you gave them. Being young, it never really bothered me - I used to have more trouble with Quadruple Green Shield stamps

My Dad had a shop too and he got the new bronze coins in advance from the bank to use as a float for change. He gave me 5 new pennies to pay in at school as part of my dinner money. When I gave them to the teacher he shook my hand and announced to the class that I was the first person to pay him in the new money!

[Fubar 71]

I paid off a ship in Liverpool on February 12th having completed my radio station accounts in £.s.d. for the last time.

Joined my next ship at the end of March and started on the new accounts. Unfortunately all the mechanical calculators hadn't been changed but at least it was easier to tot up by hand.

I seem to remember that two and a half P was the yardstick. I missed all the lead up apart from some official documents so I had to run on old money for a while doing mental conversions to make sure I wasn't being ripped off.

[£400 for a Penny ? 0]

I was in Germany, defending you lot from those dastardly Russians, so the whole thing went so far over my head that my hair didn't move.

My pocket money of one deutschmark per week remained unaltered.

[Peter 615]

It took the fun out of collecting for a young collector as my sources were famiy,neighbours etc who pulled Vickies from change.

Getting coins from amusement arcades was also the highlight of a trip to the coast.My parents bought me a coin album for my fourth

birthday.So I managed a few years of searching for date runs and upgrades.

[davidrj 194]

It took the fun out of collecting for a young collector as my sources were famiy,neighbours etc who pulled Vickies from change.

Ditto, decimals never rocked my boat. The coin collection I made as a youngster languished for 45 years in old albums and coffee jars.

Only starting collecting again when I discovered ebay about 6 years ago

David

[VickySilver 775]

I remember living on Cyprus in 1967-8 (had to have been very young - LOL) and coming back through England in the summer of '68. Evidently 5P and 10P New Pence had been released and were being used interchangeably with 1/- and 2/- coins which were the same size. Wasn't there for the changeover though...

[Gary D 76]

It took the fun out of collecting for a young collector as my sources were famiy,neighbours etc who pulled Vickies from change.

Ditto, decimals never rocked my boat. The coin collection I made as a youngster languished for 45 years in old albums and coffee jars.

Only starting collecting again when I discovered ebay about 6 years ago

David

ditto

[1949threepence 3,366]

I paid off a ship in Liverpool on February 12th having completed my radio station accounts in £.s.d. for the last time.

Joined my next ship at the end of March and started on the new accounts. Unfortunately all the mechanical calculators hadn't been changed but at least it was easier to tot up by hand.

I seem to remember that two and a half P was the yardstick. I missed all the lead up apart from some official documents so I had to run on old money for a while doing mental conversions to make sure I wasn't being ripped off.

I know somebody who's actually got a machine for doing £sd calculations. I think it's called a comptometer. Much larger than your latterday pocket calculator.

[Peckris 579]

I remember a cup of coffee in the Students Union and a packet of crisps were each suddenly "tuppence", which seemed (psychologically) to be a bargain. But I'm damned if I can remember what they were in 'old money'! If 4d, then we had some temporary inflation going on, but if 5d, then they WERE a bargain. Or maybe one was 4d and one was 5d so it evened out... (I'm sure that's what the majority of cafés did, to prevent grumbles, though I'm pretty sure that preventing grumbles in a Students Union was Mission Impossible )

Actually, we could still use old money too for a few months as well, so Lord knows what happened if you tried to pay for things using a mixture of the two! I'd hate to have been a shop assistant of the time. But I suppose the overlap period was useful - as everything was 'dual priced', you could see if you were being ripped off.

Edited February 17, 2011 by Peckris

[Red Riley 2]

Actually, we could still use old money too for a few months as well, so Lord knows what happened if you tried to pay for things using a mixture of the two! I'd hate to have been a shop assistant of the time. But I suppose the overlap period was useful - as everything was 'dual priced', you could see if you were being ripped off.

My recollection is that from 15 February, the old money was only legal tender in lots of 2 1/2p (6d), so if you had 5d, hard cheese!

[Peckris 579]

Actually, we could still use old money too for a few months as well, so Lord knows what happened if you tried to pay for things using a mixture of the two! I'd hate to have been a shop assistant of the time. But I suppose the overlap period was useful - as everything was 'dual priced', you could see if you were being ripped off.

My recollection is that from 15 February, the old money was only legal tender in lots of 2 1/2p (6d), so if you had 5d, hard cheese!

Wow, that's a good memory Derek! I'd forgotten that detail completely. What a shame that D-Day 2 is never remembered or marked. That was the true farewell day for pennies and 3d bits.

(Yes I remember the Walkers Hard Cheese variety )

Edited February 17, 2011 by Peckris

[ski 1]

I was 12 and worked out back of my grandfathers fish and chip shop, i operated the peeling and chipping machines to earn my pocket money. d-day saw me promoted to the front of the shop where i helped the pensioners recalculate the cost of their wet fish. like most fishmongers we used those price tags that pushed into the trays and i recall we had both old and new prices marked on each tray. the florin and shilling helped the changeover, but it was difficult for the elderly.

Jubbly's became 2.5 new pence if my memory serves me right, For the younger reader jubblys were the measure of currency for schoolboys

I never really stood much of a chance of getting much in the way of older silver coinage out of the till as my grandad knew the score and retrieved the best items for himself

ive been negative to decimal coinage for most of the time its been around, recent times though ive looked a little closer at the newer coins and have saved some from change, i do wonder though, with all the commerative issues and sheer number of issued coins, what future collectors will make of them.