British "Decimal Day" - 15th February 1971

[DaveK]

As we stumbled onto the subject of "old money" on the UK meet thread, I was reminded about these collectors sets I picked up at some point years ago!

The inlay cards are pretty self explanatory I think!

It seems I have four of them, plus I gave my daughter I set. I have a feeling I had six at one point, but I'm not sure!



From left to right, top then bottom - 2p, 1p, 0.5p, 10p and 5p. No 50p included! I still think of the 20p, pound and 2 pound coins as really new!



Front and back of the inlay card with some details:

[Gareth]

A good site for info on the changing face of British Money.

http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/dec.html

I don't remember the sixpence myself but it was still being used up until I was 5 apparently.  I do remember the pound and 20p coins coming out and the halfpenny disappearing though.  Can't believe the £2 coin's been around for 12 years now!  I'd have sworn they only came out 4-5 years back.

Those old 5/10/50p coins were hefty things though, I remember the new ones being very unpopular when they came out.  Shockingly that's about 20 years ago as well.  Flippin' heck I feel old all of a sudden.

 

[DaveK]

As I mentioned on the other thread, I can recall spending sixpences and threepenny bits, and the coins in the pictures I remember really well.

Only the 1p and 2p in the pictures remain today - the rest all got smaller

[Chako]

Man oh man...that brought back some old memories. Once upon a time, I was into collecting coins. I gave that up back in the early 90s. Well I do have a few related pieces from that era of the UK’s coinage system. Personally, I prefer and like the designs on the older coinage. I haven't seen them in nearly 23 years now and almost forgot I had them until I saw your sets...but I had to dig them up and share the photos with you.


The front.




The back.



Pre-decimal set.






The Decimal set.
 

[DaveK]

Very nice Chako.

Pre-decimal set.
(Image removed from quote.)

The small silver coin in the centre of the pic I quoted is a sixpence, bottom left was the "thrupenny bit". The shilling and florin (left, above the threepenny bit), were used as 5 new pence and 10 new pence coins for years. The inlay card in my pic explains this, but in eventuality, they never actually retired them and they remained legal tender right up until they were replaced by the new smaller coins.

I'm sure I have many of these old coins around somewhere

[Gareth]

That's a good couple of sets mate.   Dave's right I well remember passing around old Shillings and Florin's (I can't remember them being call Florin's though) as 5p and 10p.

[Gareth]

Here's where all this money talk started, a £1 note that I was passed in a shop.  They haven't used these south of the Border in years (not since 1988 apparently) and, while we in Scotland still technically get them printed by the Royal Bank, we rarely see them.

Also included is a commemorative £5 coin issued on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar (1805).  The £1 coins is in there to show what a chunking great thing it is.

 

[Chako]

Canadian currency has had plenty of changes also, not at frequently as that of the UK in recent history however. I recall when you could get a dollar bill. They phased those back in 87 for the 1 dollar coin. We call those loonies because of the loon on the back (incidentally, the artist lived not that far away, and his brother was my High School Principal back in the day). I remember it became very popular to call these new coins loonies because many Canadians thought the concept of trashing their beloved and easy to carry paper money just that...loonie. When they came out with a two dollar coin because they phased out the two dollar bill in 1996, we just called them twonnies. Well that name struck fast. Who said Canadians don't have a sense of humour. 

if you ask now, most people would say it was a good thing to eliminate the short lived paper money for the more durable an not so hard to carry coins. But there was plenty of opposition to the new coins...at least up in Northern Ontario.

Nice money Gareth. That commemorative coin is a looker.

[Magic Bus]

I have a couple of commemorative crowns. A Churchill dated 1965 and a Queens Jubilee dated 1977. I can remember finding half a crown as a child and thinking I was rich. That bought a lot of sweets and lemonade back then