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Decimal Day

Solidgone
Solidgone Posts: 10,213
in Not Sports Related
It was Decimal Day on the 15th February 1971 and quite an historic day of ridding the old system of the pound shillings and pence; 240 pence to the pound and 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in the pound. I still wonder how we managed but it was quite simple back in the day. But glad we moved on to decimal. Lots of the programmes about how to convert from old money to decimal; dividing by 2 was the easiest. I always remember going into the sweet shop with a pal and he asked how much was the 3p bag of sweets/chocolate bar with the shop keeper response saying 3pence. Anybody else have memories of the cross over to decimal
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Comments

  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,242
    "spend your old coppers in sixpenny lots"
  • thai malaysia addick
    thai malaysia addick Posts: 18,342
    edited February 2017
    The change was the start of reducing everyone's skills in arithmetic. I think we should have changed to 39 groats to the scrud and 73 scruds to the pound. It would have improved the nation's arithmetic skills.
    MrOneLung said:

    thai malaysia addick said:

    The change was the start of reducing everyone's skills in arithmetic. I thing we have changed to 39 groats to the scrud and 73 scruds to the pound. It would have improved the nation's arithmetic skills.

    And spelling....
    Yes, I've just re-read what I typed. I was busy at the time!
  • Uboat
    Uboat Posts: 12,199
    I was born a few months later, but I remember my parents telling me about the imperial money and thinking it sounded utterly bewildering. It must have helped with the development of mental arithmetic though.
  • seth plum
    seth plum Posts: 53,448
    thai malaysia addick said:

    The change was the start of reducing everyone's skills in arithmetic. I thing we have changed to 39 groats to the scrud and 73 scruds to the pound. It would have improved the nation's arithmetic skills.

    In terms of dealing in number bases the pre decimal imperial world was a very rich place. I always think that because most people had a vested interest in money, then knowing twelve pence to a shilling, and twenty shillings to a pound, and two shillings and sixpence to a half crown and so on led to some good mental arithmetic for most people.
    Ok we have six balls to an over, and use other measurements in height and weight, and miles too, but it does feel a whole lot different now to those pre decimal days.
  • MrOneLung
    MrOneLung Posts: 26,870
    thai malaysia addick said:

    The change was the start of reducing everyone's skills in arithmetic. I thing we have changed to 39 groats to the scrud and 73 scruds to the pound. It would have improved the nation's arithmetic skills.

    And spelling....
  • Stig
    Stig Posts: 29,038
    Thank you to decimal day for killing off the guinea, the most ridiculous and deliberately confusing monetary unit ever invented.
  • eaststandmike
    eaststandmike Posts: 14,956
    I don't see the point!!
  • Addickted
    Addickted Posts: 19,456
    Stig said:

    Thank you to decimal day for killing off the guinea, the most ridiculous and deliberately confusing monetary unit ever invented.

    And still used to this day.

    The duodecimal system is far more flexible that the decimal system.

  • Friend Or Defoe
    Friend Or Defoe Posts: 18,107
    edited February 2017
    Addickted said:

    Stig said:

    Thank you to decimal day for killing off the guinea, the most ridiculous and deliberately confusing monetary unit ever invented.

    And still used to this day.

    The duodecimal system is far more flexible that the decimal system.

    Only in dealing with thirds. Decimal fits in far better to the entire Arabic numbering system.
  • cafcfan
    cafcfan Posts: 11,200
    I remember it well. I was 5 months into my job having left school and was required to work over the weekend of 13/14 February converting the hand-written ledgers recording the holders and amounts of British Government Stocks into decimal. What a fun weekend that wasn't!

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  • se9addick
    se9addick Posts: 32,056
    Old style monetary denominations sound crazy to me - pence, pounds, farthings, shillings, guineas - you must have needed a glossary every time you went to the shops !
  • bobmunro
    bobmunro Posts: 20,852
    Friend Or Defoe said:

    Addickted said:

    Stig said:

    Thank you to decimal day for killing off the guinea, the most ridiculous and deliberately confusing monetary unit ever invented.

    And still used to this day.

    The duodecimal system is far more flexible that the decimal system.

    Only in dealing with thirds. Decimal fits in far betting to the entire Arabic numbering system.
    I'm not sure it does.

    Fractional prices 11/4, 11/8 and so on have their origins in crowns and half crowns - 21/20 - guinea to a pound - and so on. Also, of course, racehorses are traded in guineas.

    Oh sorry - just realised it was a typo ;-)
  • No.1 in South London
    No.1 in South London Posts: 3,962
    First sweet shop that I went into on Burnt Ash Hill opposite Newstead Road I spent 3p in the new currency and handed over an old shilling to pay. The poor woman behind the counter was confused by the change in currency and handed me back four gleaming new 2p's and a new penny for my change. So off I went home having nearly doubled my money and a bag of sweets into the bargain.
  • Dippenhall
    Dippenhall Posts: 3,919
    Everyone blamed decimalisation for inflation taking off after 1971 as shops priced everything in decimal and took the opportunity to round up rather than use the odd half new pence. Given the average daily wage was probably around £5 a day a half pence across the board on lots of items in those days would be noticed.

    I worked at an insurance company and we had to manually alter every paper record card into new pence using a razor blade as an eraser to scrape the ink off.
  • Oggy Red
    Oggy Red Posts: 44,958
    edited February 2017
    se9addick said:

    Old style monetary denominations sound crazy to me - pence, pounds, farthings, shillings, guineas - you must have needed a glossary every time you went to the shops !

    Up into decimalisation, old money was all that we knew and were familiar with.
    It was an every day part of our life and worked just fine, as it had for many centuries.

    Does anyone, ahem ..... of a certain age, remember the old school exercise books?
    On the back cover was all the tables of imperial metrology / measurement:

    eg, inches, feet, yards, chains and furlongs
    roods and perches to acres
    gills to pints, quarts and gallons

    And so on.

  • Oggy Red
    Oggy Red Posts: 44,958
    Friend Or Defoe said:

    Addickted said:

    Stig said:

    Thank you to decimal day for killing off the guinea, the most ridiculous and deliberately confusing monetary unit ever invented.

    And still used to this day.

    The duodecimal system is far more flexible that the decimal system.

    Only in dealing with thirds. Decimal fits in far better to the entire Arabic numbering system.
    It goes further back than even the Arabic - Ancient Egyptians, Babylonians and even the Sumarians of at least 5,000 years ago were using a base count of 60 (divisible by 30 20 15 12 10 6 5 4 3 2) which you'll see includes both 10, and 12 (divisable into quarters, halves, etc).

    Seems they realised they could have the best of both systems?

    Meanwhile, the circle is still divided into 360 degrees, 60 minutes to the hour and so on.

  • Raith_C_Chattonell
    Raith_C_Chattonell Posts: 5,687
    Dippenhall said:

    Everyone blamed decimalisation for inflation taking off after 1971 as shops priced everything in decimal and took the opportunity to round up rather than use the odd half new pence. Given the average daily wage was probably around £5 a day a half pence across the board on lots of items in those days would be noticed.

    I worked at an insurance company and we had to manually alter every paper record card into new pence using a razor blade as an eraser to scrape the ink off.

    I can clearly remember women complaining about ha’penny increases in the pre decimal days. I also recall my Mum and Nan walking from shop to shop to save a few coppers, despite heavily laden bags. I don’t know how they did it tbh, Different times, tough old days.
  • MrOneLung
    MrOneLung Posts: 26,870
    Surely only a matter of time till er time is decimalised.

    10 decimal 'hours' a day
    100 decimal 'minutes' an 'hour'
    100 decimal 'second' a 'minute' etc
  • i_b_b_o_r_g
    i_b_b_o_r_g Posts: 18,948
    Stig said:

    Thank you to decimal day for killing off the guinea, the most ridiculous and deliberately confusing monetary unit ever invented.

    Money's got s lot to answer for when you think about it. Responsible for the death of 2 thirds of a cow and also a cute little guinea.
  • bobmunro
    bobmunro Posts: 20,852
    MrOneLung said:

    Surely only a matter of time till er time is decimalised.

    10 decimal 'hours' a day
    100 decimal 'minutes' an 'hour'
    100 decimal 'second' a 'minute' etc

    Does that mean a right angle will become 25 degrees?

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  • MrOneLung
    MrOneLung Posts: 26,870
    Like it bob, I like it.
  • SuedeAdidas
    SuedeAdidas Posts: 7,749
    bobmunro said:

    MrOneLung said:

    Surely only a matter of time till er time is decimalised.

    10 decimal 'hours' a day
    100 decimal 'minutes' an 'hour'
    100 decimal 'second' a 'minute' etc

    Does that mean a right angle will become 25 degrees?
    Acute idea.
  • A-R-T-H-U-R
    A-R-T-H-U-R Posts: 7,678
    I only agree with 10% of this thread.
  • charltonkeston
    charltonkeston Posts: 7,370
    Oggy Red said:

    se9addick said:

    Old style monetary denominations sound crazy to me - pence, pounds, farthings, shillings, guineas - you must have needed a glossary every time you went to the shops !

    Up into decimalisation, old money was all that we knew and were familiar with.
    It was an every day part of our life and worked just fine, as it had for many centuries.

    Does anyone, ahem ..... of a certain age, remember the old school exercise books?
    On the back cover was all the tables of imperial metrology / measurement:

    eg, inches, feet, yards, chains and furlongs
    roods and perches to acres
    gills to pints, quarts and gallons

    And so on.

    Oggy Red said:

    se9addick said:

    Old style monetary denominations sound crazy to me - pence, pounds, farthings, shillings, guineas - you must have needed a glossary every time you went to the shops !

    Up into decimalisation, old money was all that we knew and were familiar with.
    It was an every day part of our life and worked just fine, as it had for many centuries.

    Does anyone, ahem ..... of a certain age, remember the old school exercise books?
    On the back cover was all the tables of imperial metrology / measurement:

    eg, inches, feet, yards, chains and furlongs
    roods and perches to acres
    gills to pints, quarts and gallons

    And so on.

    My first day at proper work back in '80 was a bit of an eye opener. For the previous 12 years I knew nothing but metric but the company I went to work for only used inches on their drawings and the machinery. 64ths and 32nds everywhere. Thankfully the Europeans had a better system, the company adopted that 3 year later.
  • Rufus_Ambition
    Rufus_Ambition Posts: 603
    The old system sounds crazy! I get that it was more divisible than the decimal system, but I don't really understand how that was helpful in everyday life?

    Also, can you imagine how confusing it must've been for tourists visiting the UK!
  • seth plum
    seth plum Posts: 53,448
    Rufus_Ambition said:

    The old system sounds crazy! I get that it was more divisible than the decimal system, but I don't really understand how that was helpful in everyday life?

    Also, can you imagine how confusing it must've been for tourists visiting the UK!

    Being able to do thirds of things was the main driver in my view.
  • AddicksAddict
    AddicksAddict Posts: 15,803
    eaststandmike said:

    I don't see the point!!

    It's between the amount of pounds and the amount of new pennies.
  • AddicksAddict
    AddicksAddict Posts: 15,803
    Rufus_Ambition said:

    The old system sounds crazy! I get that it was more divisible than the decimal system, but I don't really understand how that was helpful in everyday life?

    Also, can you imagine how confusing it must've been for tourists visiting the UK!

    I think it was great for tourists. Just think of the tales they could tell when they got home!
  • AddicksAddict
    AddicksAddict Posts: 15,803
    se9addick said:

    Old style monetary denominations sound crazy to me - pence, pounds, farthings, shillings, guineas - you must have needed a glossary every time you went to the shops !

    Not at all. You grew up using it and it was second nature.
  • happyvalley
    happyvalley Posts: 8,996
    I'm just getting used to this new money malarkey.

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