Decimal Day - After Decimal Day

After Decimal Day

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. After February 15, shops continued to accept payment in old coins, but always issued change in new coins. The old coins were returned to the banks and in this way the bulk of them were quickly taken out of circulation.

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. On 31 August 1971, the penny and threepence were officially withdrawn from circulation, ending the transition period.

The government hoped that in speech the new units would be called "new pence", but many 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 the slang word "quid"—referring to a pound and dating from pre-decimal times—has survived. The guinea (21s or £1.05) in expressions such as 80 gns (£80 plus 80s, equal to £84) has almost completely disappeared from use apart from a few esoteric uses.

The public information campaign over the preceding two years helped, as did 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. 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. (This phrase is now often used semi-facetiously to ask for conversion from metric to imperial weights and measures.)

Around the time of Decimalisation 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.