Decimal Day

Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and in Ireland was on 15 February 1971, the day on which each country decimalised its respective £sd currency of pounds, shillings, and pence. Before this date, 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" (abbreviated "d"). In Ireland, the Irish pound had a similar £sd currency structure and similar changes took place.

An introductory pack of the new currency.
This article is part of a series on the
History of the
English penny

United Kingdom
See also: Coins of the pound sterling § Pre-decimal coinage

Background

The Russian ruble was the first European decimal currency, dating to 1704, though China had been using a decimal system for at least 2000 years (see History of Chinese currency).[1] The Coinage Act of 1792 (US) officially authorised the United States to have a decimal currency, the first English-speaking country to have one. The decimal French franc was introduced in 1795.

The United Kingdom Parliament rejected Sir John Wrottesley's proposals to decimalise sterling in 1824, which was prompted by the introduction of the French franc. After that defeat, little practical progress towards decimalisation was made for over a century, with the exception of the two-shilling silver florin (worth 1/10 of a pound), which was first issued in 1849. A double florin or four-shilling piece was a further step in that direction but failed to gain acceptance and was struck only from 1887 to 1890.

The Decimal Association was founded in 1841 to promote decimalisation and metrication, both causes that were boosted by a realisation of the importance of international trade following the 1851 Great Exhibition. It was as a result of the growing interest in decimalisation that the florin was issued.

In their preliminary report, the Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage (1856–1857) considered the benefits and problems of decimalisation but did not draw any conclusion about the adoption of any such scheme.[2] A final report in 1859 from the two remaining commissioners, Lord Overstone and Governor of the Bank of England John Hubbard came out against the idea by claiming that it had "few merits".[3]

In 1862, the Select committee on Weights and Measures favoured the introduction of decimalisation to accompany the introduction of metric weights and measures.[4]

The Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage (1918–1920), chaired by Lord Emmott, reported in 1920 that the only feasible scheme was to divide the pound into 1,000 mills (the pound and mill system, first proposed in 1824) but that it would be too inconvenient. A minority of four members said that the disruption would be worthwhile. A further three members recommended that the pound should be replaced by the royal, consisting of 100 halfpennies and so there would be 4.8 royals to the former pound.[5]

In 1960, a report prepared jointly by the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, followed by the success of decimalisation in South Africa, prompted the Government to set up the Committee of the Inquiry on Decimal Currency (Halsbury Committee) in 1961, which reported in 1963.[6] The adoption of the changes suggested in the report was announced on 1 March 1966.[7] The Decimal Currency Board (DCB) was created to manage the transition, but the plans were not approved by Parliament until the Decimal Currency Act in May 1969. The former Greater London Council leader Bill Fiske was named as the Chairman of the Decimal Currency Board.

Consideration was given to introducing a new major unit of currency worth ten shillings in the old currency. Suggested names included the new pound, the royal and the noble. It would have resulted in the "decimal penny" being worth only slightly more than the old penny (that approach was adopted, for example, when South Africa, Australia and New Zealand decimalised in the 1960s, adopting respectively the South African rand, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar equal in value to 10 shillings). However, Halsbury decided that the pound sterling's importance as a reserve currency meant that the pound should remain unchanged.

Preparation
British decimalisation training stamps in the same colours and values as the upcoming decimal stamps.

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. That 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.[8] (The farthing had last been minted in 1956 and had ceased to be legal tender in 1961.)

There was a substantial publicity campaign in the weeks before Decimalisation Day, including a song by Max Bygraves called "Decimalisation".[9] The BBC broadcast a series of five-minute programmes, "Decimal Five", to which The Scaffold contributed some specially-written tunes.[10] ITV repeatedly broadcast a short drama called Granny Gets The Point, starring Doris Hare, the actress in On The Buses in which an elderly woman who does not understand the new system is taught to use it by her grandson.[11] 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.[12]

Banks received stocks of the new coins in advance, which 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 few bank branches were then 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 the change. Prior to Decimal Day, the double pricing had been displayed as, for example, 1s (5p). On Decimal Day, the order was switched to 5p (1s). For example, the latter order was used on most football programmes during the 1970–71 season. High denomination (10p, 20p and 50p) stamps were issued on 17 June 1970.[8] Post offices were issued with very simple training stamps in the same colours as the upcoming decimal stamps.[13]

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 (2+1/2p, the lowest common multiple of the two systems). Bus companies, many of which were state-owned by the National Bus Company, were another exception and went decimal on 21 February.[14]

After Decimal Day

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, but the overall price adjustments slightly favoured the consumer. Some used new pennies as sixpences in vending machines.[15] 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 so most 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.[15] On 31 August 1971, the 1d and 3d were officially withdrawn from circulation, which ended the transition period.[16]

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 predecimal times. Amounts denominated in guineas (21s or £1.05) are reserved for specialist transactions, such as the sale of horses and some auctions.

A "Decimal Adder"

The public information campaign over the preceding two years helped, as well as the trick of getting a rough conversion of new pence into old shillings and pence by simply doubling the number of new pence and placing a solidus, or slash, between the digits: 17p multiplied by 2 = 34, – approximately equal to 3/4 ("three and four", or three shillings and four pence), with a similar process for the reverse conversion.[17] The willingness of a young population to embrace the change also helped. In general, elderly people had 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. (That phrase is now often used to ask for conversion between metric and imperial weights and measures.)[18][19]

Around Decimal Day, "Decimal Adders" and other converters were available to help people convert between the old and new coins. The following is a table showing conversions between the decimal and pre-decimal systems.

Pre-decimalDecimal
Common nameAmount

(shillings/pence)

(new) pence1p = £0.01
Farthing1/4d1/48s ≈ 0.104p
Halfpenny1/2d1/24s ≈ 0.208p
Penny1d1/12s ≈ 0.417p
Threepence3d1+1/4p
Sixpence6d2+1/2p
Shilling1/-5p
Florin/Two shillings2/-10p
Half crown2/612+1/2p
Crown5/-25p
Pound20/-£1 = 100p
Guinea21/-£1.05 = 105p

Validity of old coins

All pre-decimal coins (except for certain non-circulating coins such as crowns, sovereigns, and double florins,[20] which were explicitly excluded from demonetisation) are now no longer legal tender. Public outcry at the proposed demise of the old sixpence (6d), worth exactly 2+1/2p and originally slated for early withdrawal, postponed its withdrawal until June 1980.

Shillings and florins, together with their same-sized 5p and 10p coin equivalents, coexisted in circulation as valid currency until the early 1990s. In theory, that included coins dating back to 1816, but in practice the oldest were dated 1947, when those coins stopped containing silver. The coins were withdrawn when smaller 5p and 10p coins were introduced in 1990 and 1992, respectively.

The face value of Maundy money coins was maintained, increasing all their face values by a factor of 2.4, as the coins continued to be legal tender as new pence.[21] The numismatic value of each coin, though, greatly exceeds face value.

All predecimal crowns remain legal tender, with a face value of 25p.[22]

Subsequent changes

The decimal halfpenny (1/2p), which had been introduced in 1971, remained in circulation until 1984, when its value had been greatly reduced by inflation. It was not struck except for collectors' sets after 1983 (those dated 1984 were struck only as proofs or in uncirculated munt sets) and was demonetised on 31 December 1984. The 50p piece was reduced in size in 1997, following the reduction in size of the 5p in 1990 and the 10p in 1992 (the large versions of all the three have been demonetised). The 1p and 2p underwent a compositional change from bronze to plated steel in 1992. However, both coins remain valid back to 1971, the only circulating coins on Decimal Day that are still valid.

In 1982, the word "new" in "new penny" or "new pence" was removed from the inscriptions on coins and was replaced by the number of pence in the denomination (for example, "ten pence" or "fifty pence"). That coincided with the introduction of a new 20p coin, which from the outset bore simply the legend "twenty pence".

A £1 coin was introduced in 1983,[23] and a £2 coin in 1997.

Republic of Ireland
Cash register in Ireland; the keys have values in "new pence" above and "old pence" below.
See also: Irish pound § Pre-decimal system

When the old £sd system (consisting of pounds, shillings, and pence) was in operation, the United Kingdom and Ireland operated within the Sterling area, effectively a single monetary area. The Irish pound was created as a separate currency in 1927 with distinct coins and notes, but the terms of the Irish Currency Act obliged the Irish currency commissioners to redeem Irish pounds on a fixed 1:1 basis, and so day-to-day banking operations continued exactly as they had been before the creation of the Irish pound.[24] The Irish pound was decimalised on 15 February 1971, the same date as the British pound.

This arrangement continued until 1979 when Irish obligations to the European Monetary System led to Ireland breaking the historic link with Sterling.[25]

In Ireland, all pre-decimal coins, except the 1s, 2s and 10s coins, were called in during the initial process between 1969 and 1972; the ten shilling coin, which, as recently issued and in any event equivalent to 50p, was permitted to remain outstanding (though due to silver content, the coin did not circulate). The 1s and 2s were recalled in 1993 and 1994 respectively. Pre-decimal Irish coins may still be redeemed at their face value equivalent in Euros at the Central Bank in Dublin.

Pre-decimal Irish coins and stamps' values were denoted with Irish language abbreviations (scilling ("shilling", abbreviated "s") and pingin ("penny", abbreviated "p")) rather than abbreviations derived from the Latin solidi and denarii used in other Sterling countries. Irish people and business otherwise used "£sd" just as in other countries. Thus, prior to decimalisation, coins were marked '1p', '3p' etc. rather '1d' and '3d' as in Britain. Low-value Irish postage stamps likewise used 'p' rather than 'd'; so a two-penny stamp was marked '2p' in Ireland rather than '2d' as in the UK. After decimalisation, while British stamps switched from 'd' to 'p', Irish stamps (but not coins) printed the number with no accompanying letter; so a stamp worth 2 new pence was marked '2p' in the UK and simply '2' in Ireland.[26]

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See also

References
  1. Heeffer, Albrecht (24 May 2016). "Welk land voerde als eerste het decimale stelsel voor zijn valuta in" [Which country was the first to introduce a decimal system for their currency] (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  2. "Preliminary report of the Decimal Coinage Commissioners". Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage, 1857. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007.
  3. BOPCRIS. Final Report of the Decimal Coinage Commissioners Archived 28 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. Department of Trade and Industry. Report (1862) from the Select Committee on Weights and Measures Archived 16 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage Decimal coinage Archived 12 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. The American Economic Review Vol. 54, No. 4 (June 1964) pp. 481–485
  7. "Speech by Chancellor of the Exchequer to the House of Commons 1 March 1966". Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  8. All Change, p. 9
  9. "Max Bygraves DECIMALISATION". YouTube. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  10. "Decimal Five". BBC. 15 February 1971. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  11. "Granny Gets the Point". IMDB. Retrieved 29 January 2020. A short information film produced to get Britain ready for decimalisation in February 1971
  12. "Search Results - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  13. "Another view" by Douglas Myall in British Philatelic Bulletin, Vol. 51, No. 5, January 2014, pp. 149–151.
  14. All Change, p. 9, 23
  15. All Change, p. 23
  16. All Change, p. 9, 20
  17. Daily Mail, 15 February 1971, p.1
  18. "old-money noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes - Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com". www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  19. "Extra's – What's that in old Money?". www.downthelane.net. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  20. Coincraft's Standard Catalogue English & UK Coins 1066 to Date, Richard Lobel, Coincraft. ISBN 0-9526228-8-2, 1999 ed., p. 637
  21. "Coinage Act 1971". www.statutelaw.gov.uk. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  22. "How can I dispose of commemorative crowns? And why do some have a higher face value than others?". The Royal Mint Museum.
  23. Murray-West, Rosie (16 April 2013). "Maggie's 'brassy' pound coin prepares for 30th birthday". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  24. "Currency Act, 1927".
  25. From the £ (pound sterling) to the Punt (IRP) and to the €
  26. "Irish Decimal Postage Stamps Issued 1970 - 1980".

Sources
  • The Royal Mint, All Change: 25th Anniversary of Decimal Currency in Britain (pamphlet distributed with 1996 Royal Mint silver proof sets)

Further reading
  • Moore, N. E. A. (1973). The Decimalisation of Britain's Currency. London: H.M.S.O. ISBN 0116303220.
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