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Decimal day |
Decimal Day (15 February 1971) was the day the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies. It is also known as Decimalisation Day and D-Day.
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Under the old currency of pounds, shillings, and pence, the pound was made up of 240 "old pence" (denoted by the letter d for Latin denarius), with twelve old pence in a shilling and 20 shillings (denoted by s) in a pound. Especially in an era before widespread computer use, monetary calculations, such as adding up sums of money, could be complicated. Tourists were also confused by coins such as the 'half-crown' (worth two shillings and sixpence, or one eighth of a pound). The loss of value of the currency meant that the penny, with the same diameter as the U.S. half dollar, was of relatively slight value (the farthing, worth one-quarter of an old penny, had been demonetised in 1960).
For further details of the currency before decimalisation, see British pre-decimal system and Irish pre-decimal system.
Following the rejection by Parliament of Lord Wrottesley's proposals to decimalise sterling in 1824 (which were prompted by the introduction in 1795 of the decimal French franc), 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) 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 only struck from 1887 to 1890.
The Decimal Association was founded in 1841 to promote decimalisation and metrication, causes that were both 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.1 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, claiming it had "few merits".2
In 1862, the Select Committee on Weights and Measures favoured the introduction of decimalisation to accompany the introduction of metric weights and measures.3
The decimalisation movement even entered fiction. In Anthony Trollope's Palliser novels (and more so in the television series based on them), Plantagenet Palliser is a passionate advocate of decimalisation, a cause the other characters seem to find intensely boring. Palliser's scheme would have divided the shilling into ten (presumably revalued) pennies. This would have changed the threepence into 2.5 new pence, the sixpence into fivepence, and the half crown into a two shilling, five pence piece. It would also have required the withdrawal and reissuance of the existing copper coinage. It is never made clear if Palliser is able to implement this scheme.
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 1000 mills (the pound and mill system), first proposed in 1824, but that this would be too inconvenient. A minority of four members disagreed, saying that the disruption would be worthwhile. A further three members recommended that the Pound should be replaced by the Royal, consisting of 100 halfpennies (i.e. there would be 4.8 Royals to the former Pound).4
Finally, 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. The adoption of the changes suggested in the report was announced on 1 March 1966. The Decimal Currency Board (DCB) was created to manage the transition, although the plans were not approved by Parliament until the Decimal Currency Act in May 1969. Former Greater London Council leader Bill Fiske was named as the Chairman of the Decimal Currency Board.
Consideration was given to having a new "decimal pound" worth ten shillings in the old currency which would have resulted in the "decimal penny" being worth only slightly more than the old penny (this approach was adopted, for example, when Australia and New Zealand decimalised in the 1960s, adopting respectively the Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar equal in value to 10s). In the event, it was decided by Halsbury that the pound sterling's importance as a reserve currency meant that the pound should remain unchanged.
Under the new system, the pound was retained but was now divided into 100 "new pence", denoted by the symbol p. New, different coinage was issued alongside the old coins. The 5p and 10p coins were first introduced in April 1968, and were the same size, composition and value as the shillings and florins circulating alongside them. In October 1969 the 50p coin was introduced and the old ten-shilling note was withdrawn. This reduced the number of new coins that had to be introduced on the day and meant that the public was already familiar with three of the six new coins. Small booklets (see illustration above) were made available containing some or all of the new denominations.
The old halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation on 31 July 1969, while the half-crown (2s 6d) followed on 31 December to ease the transition.5 (The farthing had last been minted in 1956 and ceased to be legal tender in 1960.)
To prevent speculation, all predecimal coins struck for circulation from 1967 were struck with a 1967 date.6 However, a collector's set, with one each of the seven denominations of the old system which until recently had been struck, from the halfpenny to the half crown, was issued with coins dated 1970 (even though, having been demonetised the previous year, the 1970-dated halfpenny and half crown included in the set were never legal tender).
A massive publicity campaign was run 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. Banks were closed from 3:30pm on Wednesday, 10 February 1971 until 10:00am on Monday 15 February, enabling them to stock up with the new coins. February had been chosen for D-Day because it was the quietest time of the year for the banks, shops and transport organisations. Shops priced goods in both currencies.
Many items were priced in both currencies for some time before and after. Prior to Decimal Day the double pricing was displayed as e.g. 1s(5p); from Decimal Day the order was switched to 5p(1s). For example this order was used on most football programmes during the season 1970/71. High denomination (10p, 20p, and 50p) stamps were issued on 17 June 1970.5
Exceptions to the February 15 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 sixpenny lots.7
Decimal Day itself went smoothly, and did not even form the lead story the following day in most national newspapers. 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.8
The new ½p, 1p and 2p were introduced on 15 February 1971. Within two weeks of Decimal Day, the penny (1d) and threepenny (3d) coins had left circulation, and even sixpences were becoming rare.8 On 31 August 1971, the penny and threepenny were officially withdrawn from circulation, thus ending the transition period.9
The government hoped that in speech the new units would be called "new pence",citation needed but many decided that it was clearer and quicker to pronounce the new coins as "pee". Shortenings such as "tuppence" are rarely heard, and terms such as "tanner" (the silver sixpence), which previously designated amounts of money, are no longer used.
The public information campaign that had run over the preceding two years helped, as did the trick of getting a rough conversion of new pence into old shillings and pence by the simple process of doubling the number of new pence and placing a solidus, or slash, between the digits: 17p multiplied by 2 = 34, which is approximately equal to 3/4 ("three and four", or three shillings and four pence), with a similar process for the reverse conversion.10 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?" became associated with those who struggled with the change.
Around the time of 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-decimal | Decimal | |
|---|---|---|
| Common name | Amount | |
| Halfpenny | ½d. | 5⁄24p ≈ 0.208p |
| Penny | 1d. | 5⁄12p ≈ 0.417p |
| Threepence | 3d. | 1¼p |
| Sixpence | 6d. | 2½p |
| Shilling | 1/- | 5p |
| Florin | 2/- | 10p |
| Half crown | 2/6 | 12½p |
| Crown | 5/- | 25p |
All pre-decimal coins (except for certain non-circulating coins such as sovereigns and double florins 11 which were explicitly excluded from demonetization) are now no longer legal tender. Public outcry at the proposed demise of the old sixpence (6d), worth exactly 2½p and originally slated for early withdrawal, postponed its withdrawal until 1980.
Shillings and florins, together with their same-sized 5p and 10p coin equivalents, co-existed in circulation as valid currency until the early 1990s. In theory this included coins dating back to 1816; in practice the oldest were dated 1947 when these values 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, effectively increasing all their face values by a factor of 2.4, as the coins continued to be legal tender as new pence.12 The numismatic value of each coin, though, greatly exceeds face value.
The decimal halfpenny (½p), introduced in 1971, remained in circulation until 1984, by which time its value had been greatly reduced by inflation. It was not struck, except for collectors' sets, after 1982, and was demonetized on 31 December 1984. The 50p piece was reduced in size in 1997, following the reduction of size of the 5p in 1990 and the 10p in 1992 (the large versions of each of the three are now invalid). 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 valid on Decimal Day still to be valid.
In 1982, the word "new" in "new penny" or "new pence" was removed from the inscriptions on British coins, to be replaced by the number of pence in the denomination (i.e. "ten pence" or "fifty pence"). This coincided with the introduction of a new 20p coin, which, from the introduction, would simply bear the legend "twenty pence".
When the old pounds, shillings, and pence system was in operation, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland were effectively a single monetary area. The Irish pound had come into existence as a separate currency in 1927, 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 throughout the British Isles exactly as it had been before the creation of the Irish Pound.13
This state of affairs continued until 1979 when Irish obligations to the European Monetary System forced them to break the historic link with Sterling.14
In Ireland, all pre-decimal coins, except the 1s, 2s and 10s coins, were called in during the initial process between 1969 to 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 euro at the Central Bank in Dublin.
The Royal Mint, All Change: 25th Anniversary of Decimal Currency in Britain (pamphlet distributed with 1996 Royal Mint silver proof sets)
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