Uploads from Igtastical

1971 Decimalisation Guide Back Cover

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:17:13 -0800

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Just in case you need to do any conversions of your own.

1971 Decimalisation Guide p15

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:17:07 -0800

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Imagine in that, going to a restaurant a paying for a meal that costs over a pound! Well I never - the luxury!

1971 Decimalisation Guide p14

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:17:03 -0800

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There must have been a belief that there might be a transference of language from the old system to the new system, but clearly many of the old names did eventually die off.

For example, a shilling or colloquially-named 'bob' was replaced with the new five pence piece and as you can see in the example above they might have believed that the term would remain in usage, at least initally.

I can't recall anyone ever referring to a five pence as a 'bob'.

1971 Decimalisation Guide p13

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:58 -0800

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The Guinea is an interesting coin, being as it was the value of one pound and one shilling - almost like a 'super-pound'. The example here demonstrates one of the major benefits of banishing it.

1971 Decimalisation Guide p12

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:54 -0800

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Instructions here are pretty clear. Never say "two seventy-five" meaning £2.75 - it's funny how the natural lingua evolves despite official guidance. The reality is that abbreviating or changing units on figures still causes confusion in situations today, but usually when dealing with larger amounts e.g when I say fifteen hundred rather than one thousand, five hundred. Today "two seventy-five" is perfectly acceptable, as we all well understand the system of units we operate with.

But you have to remember at the time, this guidance was probably vital, because the language of dealing with money was completely changing. Referring to something like that probably would cause confusion when you were struggling to apply just two units instead of three, let alone work out what that was in old pence .

1971 Decimalisation Guide p11

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:49 -0800

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I like this, but apparently the installation of automatic tills was a bit of a new fangled innovation on it's own. I still think the 'tumble-down' chute sounds fantastic.

The idea of the money automatically being dispensed at queued tills was new, as at the time 'department-style' counter-based payment was pretty much the norm.

1971 Decimalisation Guide p10

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:45 -0800

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1971 Decimalisation Guide p9

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:40 -0800

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Translating old money to new money proved a bit of a difficulty.

My parents (who I quizzed on this) tell me that the banks made approximate conversions and so where the guidance indicated that some coins translated directly (2 shillings = 10 pence) the reality was coins didn't provide exact matches. In the declaration forms, people would round up their figures, meaning the cost of decimalisation included paying off the difference generated.

It also allowed wily storekeepers to benefit from the confusion. Where as once it has been a case of 'spending a penny' to use a public toilet, the inflationary nature of the new coinage meant spending a penny meant it now cost 2.4 old pence to use the convenience, and soon enough, they took the opportunity to up this to 'just' two pence which was symptomatic of a general inflationary effect that spread across the economy.

1971 Decimalisation Guide p8

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:35 -0800

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When decimal currency was first introduced, the official guidelines stated that the pound/pence divider - the decimal point - was to be raised to the middle of the line, and this character is technically called a middot.

Within a number of years it was decided to revoke this original guidance as it was quite apparent that most reproduction devices could only manage to produce a full stop anyway on a normal QWERTY keyboard. Rarely if ever is it ever used now in print or by hand, but you can see it used here.

1971 Decimalisation Guide p7

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:31 -0800

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Florins, shillings, farthings, crowns, half-crowns, guineas, sixpences and threp'ny bits were all consigned to history.

1971 Decimalisation Guide p6

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:27 -0800

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£3.25 for your cardigans lads, £1.25 for summer dress ladies - bargains!

1971 Decimalisation Guide p5

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:23 -0800

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Clearly "Marks & Spencers girls" was still considered a suitable (probably accurate) way to refer to your staff in the 1970s. I think it's pretty innocuous in this situation, but I doubt you'd ever find that copy in a modern publication.

1971 Decimalisation Guide p3

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:19 -0800

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Until not too long ago, the design of the original coins stayed. Note the absence of the 20 pence piece in the original coin line up.

1971 Decimalisation Guide p2

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:15 -0800

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The introduction of 'p' as a denominator was new. Previous 'd' had been used to denote the smallest unit of currency.

In the first instance, the halfpenny was introduced (a physically smaller coin than a new one pence piece), but was later phased out, not least because of inflation.

Some of the prices in this guide are strikingly funny because of this.

1971 Decimalisation Guide Cover

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:16:11 -0800

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Guide issued by M&S in the lead up to the decimalisation of currency.

Austria Snowboarding-027

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:43:46 -0800

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Tim

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:43:41 -0800

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Austria Snowboarding-026

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:43:37 -0800

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Austria Snowboarding-025

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:43:34 -0800

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Austria Snowboarding-024

nobody@flickr.com (Igtastical) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:43:30 -0800

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