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1971 - the day Britain went Decimal

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I was working in a record shop that day A couple of days before we had put a sign in the window reading "brbr"Last chance to spend real money! From the 15th we'll only accept Dismal Money brbrIt went down well
Comment from : @liuzhou

Why the US doesn't switch to the metric system is beyond me I grew up in the US, but later moved to Mexico It only takes a short while to mentally switch from pounds to kilos and from quarts to liters
Comment from : @RichardWheeler-kw7mk

About five years after Aus, I still remember the ad on TV, sang to click go the shears, when the coins begin to click, on the fourteenth of February 1966 But whit us it was the ten bob note that became one dollar
Comment from : @Frederick-in2rz

Cost a lot of money, has not tangible benefit You drank the koolaidbrbr"base 10 is superior" why? Objectively why is base N better than base M for money? Show a proof!
Comment from : @James-l5s7k

No silver content
Comment from : @johnnagle7702

Word for word this is the Wikipedia article
Comment from : @NicolasBeldam

This was the greatest hike in inflation ever recorded Stores immediately rounded up all their prices, to make things easier for us leaving shareholders rubbing their hands and Joe Public wondering what the hell happened As we had both old and new currency running together for a long timeThis triggered a decade of strikes and inflation mortgage rates of 13 culmination in the Winter of discontent and the beginning of the Thatcher erabrSo for those who complain about Mrs Thatcher her rise to power can be directly related to decimalisation
Comment from : @arthurbaldwin1804

The UK abolished the Imperial pound/shilling/pence system and Fahrenheit degrees What about abolishing miles, pints and ounces as well?
Comment from : @TheWuschelMUC

I was only 10 on D-Day but my brain can still work happily in either system - neither one seems more or less natural than the otherbrPeople who weren't around before 1971 think £sd must have been unfathomably complicated It wasn't!
Comment from : @LostsTVandRadio

I remember the day very well,I worked for a wholesale bakers on a bread round and most customers paid cash,we made the change without problem because we had training before well before the date
Comment from : @brianmarshall1637

Odd thing is I remember my first day at school in september 1971 and remember holding a threepence in my hand for my dinner money yet you say they went out in febuary of that year ! but I know that was what I had in my hand and I handed it over to the teacher
Comment from : @david-hf3dk

Thanks for reading the Wikipedia article
Comment from : @calvinnickel9995

Decimalisation was intended to prepare the UK for entry into the European Community, which it joined in 1973 As was metrication The UK left the EU in 2020, so maybe not that much has been learned yet
Comment from : @ilokivi

At that juncture, there was none of this modern new-fangled online codswallop
Comment from : @PeterRapley-gv5vt

When I was born, the old pre-decimal currency was still in circulation That makes me feel old!
Comment from : @PeterRapley-gv5vt

One of the biggest mistakes I have made in my life was when I worked at the Torrington pub in North Finchley, London I found an old LSd till in the cellar and for a joke put it in the bar (about 1974) When one of my customers purchased a pint, I said 17 and ninepence please The reply I received was YOU ARE NOT CHARGING ME THAT MUCH FOR A BLOODY PINT I apologized and said 89P please THATS BETTER!! DONT DO THAT AGAIN!!
Comment from : @stephenmanning1553

What a robbery, my mum always said it wasnt a good day
Comment from : @englishjona6458

"Half penny" should always be pronounced ha'penny, particularly when talking about pre-decimalisation
Comment from : @psammiad

My beer at the local now costs ninety-four shillings a pint, ninety-eight Fridays & Saturdays, soon to hit the one hundred shilling markbrA HUNDRED shillings for a pint!
Comment from : @gijgij4541

There used to be a small kiosk outside Unicorn Gate, Portsmouth naval base, run by a little old lady selling papers etc come decimalisation she informed everyone that she had a stock of old money and would carry on using it You just couldn’t persuade her that she was waiting her time as her old pennies weren’t legal anymore
Comment from : @grahamrandle6458

why is it always the old people who cant handle change?
Comment from : @chrishall7498

Bank always closed at 330pm with many not opening till 10ambrSo there was no special opening times
Comment from : @oldnottoogrumpy

I always found United Kingdom 🇬🇧 coins 🪙🪙🪙 to be so fascinating Especially the drachma (three pence)
Comment from : @DanielFleiss2343

I always found United Kingdom 🇬🇧 coins to be so fascinating
Comment from : @DanielFleiss2343

From hard cash to funny, fiat money 1971, the year when the US $ was no longer backed by gold
Comment from : @mikebarnes7734

using anything other than 100 cents per dollar is psychotic to me
Comment from : @benjaminlehman3221

90 of the shop owners put their prices up From my memory most shop owners just replaced shillings with pence one for one
Comment from : @andrewmadeup7375

I was lucky to dodge the imperial bullet, as Australia decimalised when I was toddling to the Revolver albumbrbrI remember asking my uncle to explain it when I found a hand counter with 3 clickers instead of one each for $ and centsbrbrThe rest was just a blur of 12s and 20sbrbrMuch easier going to metric and celcius in the 70s, because you either felt it or faced it, and the new number just rode along
Comment from : @rogergreen9861

I have 1955 Half Crown
Comment from : @khakim-qh6oq

1:55 wtf scout tf2
Comment from : @Vexcenot

Although I was born in 1970 in Ireland, I recall the Euro being brought in (as I’d only moved to the UK in 2002) and I recall the confusion that it created - I still think that the Euro notes and coins are incredibly ugly compared to the Irish Punt and Pounds Sterling and even today, it’s still the one thing that drives me mad about going home to Ireland on visits to family, as it’s probably a reason why Dublin is so expensive compared to the UK
Comment from : @michaeljohndennis2231

I was born before decimalisation but was too young to use money I learnt about it from my parents & grandparents and a couple of copies of the D-Day booklets with the conversion table I can use both even though I never paid for anything in the old money I remember the shilling & two shilling coins were still in circulation years after D-Day
Comment from : @paulclifton7566

Aww, back in the day's when a pound really was a pound! And kid's earned pocket money! When you could by a stone of spuds, a pound of apples and four ounces of or a quarter of cola cubes! And I was four feet three inches!
Comment from : @steadyeddie7

On D day I was in Cyprus with the RAF Cyprus had a decimal pound tied to sterling So almost as many UK notes in circulation as local ones So far so good, until Harold Wilsons's Government devalued the £ and suddenly the locals stopped taking UK notes Thanks Harold
Comment from : @MENSAlady2

I was 30 days old on 15/2/1971 and blissfully unaware of this change I grew up with mam and dad saying things like “that’s 3 and 6 and I’m like WHAT!?brbrI wish we’d have another D Day and start using Kilometres instead of miles I am 1m 73cms tall I’m told that’s 5’-8” but wouldn’t have a clue Metric is so much easier to understand
Comment from : @smogmonster1876

I think Australia did the change-over simpler The ten shilling note became a dollar, all the coins kept their costs basically, the shilling became 10c, two shillings became 20c etc And our one pound note became $2 Sixpence became 5c So simple, everything stayed the same
Comment from : @toni4729

Considering the upheaval forecast when we went 'Decimal' in 1971, things went relatively smoothly I never did understand the silly £sd system, when most other currencies, even the Romans, were done in multiples of 10 and 100 I was working in Lewis's in Manchester on Saturdays at the time, we got some coins, unofficially, to take home on the Saturday before 'D Day', which was on a Tuesday I went to school on Monday 14 February 1971 and was able to show my classmates the new 1p and 2 p coins, which didn't become officialy tender until the following day Being an analytical chemist in my later career, I still can't understand why the UK took so long to adopt a decimal currency system, Australia went decimal in 1966 and New Zealand followed in 1967, years earlier than the UK
Comment from : @paultaylor7082

The old 6d coin became 2 and a half new pence and remained in circulation until 1983, it wasn't withdrawn in 1971
Comment from : @davidpollard1139

I'm from America and am too young to remember the conversion to decimal, but I am a mental calculator and so this stuff is right up my alley I like difficult problems, though the conversion becomes easier with practice Math is always math in the end
Comment from : @jeffw1267

My favourite is that on the North Bank at Arsenal, the peanut vendor, who had previously touted 6d a bag, just changed it to 6p I was not a customer
Comment from : @MrTonyHeath

The threepenny bit wasn't pronounced "threpenny" Everyone pronounced it "throopenny", except for the lady in our local toy shop who always called it "threpence"
Comment from : @MFisher7346

My old nan always claimed decimalisation was the greatest con ever perpetrated on the British people :shrug:
Comment from : @daveduvergier3412

I remember as a child passing off old half pennies as a new 2p coin worth over 4 times as much many times
Comment from : @alisteeaiken7667

The first move towards decimal was actually in the 19th century The two shilling Florin was brought out in 1849, specifically to be one tenth of a pound
Comment from : @moonkeele

As kids we were only bothered that Decimal 5 replaced The Magic Roundabout We already understood how to count in 10’s, and were frustrated that adults needed a TV programme to explain it to them!
Comment from : @rattyfus8218

If we went back to pre decimal, it would blow the minds of everybody under 60 😂😂
Comment from : @TRexMetalGuru

I remember it well!
Comment from : @mikeclifton7778

i was 6 at the time, and have no recollection of using the old money but there was a stash of silver sixpences in an old china donkey hidden away at the back of kitchen shelf, which my brother and i used to raid to buy ice creams from mr whippy, if mum wasn't about and dad was being a tight bugger 😁brbrthey were still accepted until 1980, which i just had to google! remarkable, really, that they stuck around for that long!brbrhard to believe that decimalisation was that confusing for old folk, especially given the complicated and convoluted old many system!
Comment from : @sarahlouise7163

You really had to be adept at mental math to manage that crZy old sysyem
Comment from : @thomashattey8037

1971's a year tho
Comment from : @alliterate

I HAV😂E A 300 TWO NEW PENCE & 50 ONE NEW PENNY ALL IN 1971 YEARS GOOD VIDEO THANKS
Comment from : @narendragedam1948

I've got only two bob Can anyone lend me a tanner ?
Comment from : @michaelmacaulay8074

Big mistake Britain should have shut the rest of the world out
Comment from : @b17vic

Yeah we all got ripped off worst thing to happen in the uk apart from 2 world wars
Comment from : @SPOOKS28

The devaluing of a currency
Comment from : @eddielasowsky7777

I had my first puppy that day I went out with a pocketful of coins to buy some dog supplies The elderly couple who ran the shop had no idea what their stock was in decimal money, and I could not convert either, even though I'd had lessons at school In the end, we came to an agreement that suited all of us I called my new puppy Penny in honour of the day
Comment from : @PLuMUK54

As a 6 yr old in Bradford England at this time, I remember it as a scam I had 2 shilling as pocket money weekly The week before this was 24 Pennie’s, a 5p bottle of Ben Shaws dandelion and burdock, and a 19 Pennie’s of sweets A week later, a 5p bottle of Ben Shawshank dandelion and burdock and 5 Pennys worth of sweets The prices of things didn’t change, but it was a 60 increase of pricesso a weeks wages was worth less than half in a week 40 pounds wages was still 40 ponds, but it bought less than half of what it did the week before… It was a total scam
Comment from : @theopinionatedbystander

I remember inflation took off 🚀, everything cost double💷,,,,,,,,,, the new penny became the old pennybr but the new penny was worth 24 old pennies it was one big CON everybody took advantage and the prices went through the roof💷💷💷💷💷💷💷💷
Comment from : @ianlewis2813

They used to say "Why don't they wait until all the old people die"
Comment from : @daviddixey

I was born in 64 I remember the change it seemed easy for me but my parents had a job understanding it
Comment from : @davehendry8056

"Ten plus seven make seventeen; subtract twelve, put down your five and carry one: One and five" I was in the last class in my school do 'money sums' in the old currency Just reciting the patter involved makes me nostalgic I also remember the metallic 'swish, swish, swish' sound the big old copper pennies made as you counted out your pocket money
Comment from : @andrewgcarvill4596

The UK should have scrapped its Pound And should have adopted what Canada and Australia did, Dollars and cents
Comment from : @michaelquinones-lx6ks

I remember it well I was 9 and the only person in the family who was comfortable converting LSD to 'New' money My mental arithmetic was in much demand for a couple of months
Comment from : @occamraiser

people moan about brexit maybe joining the european common market was a mistake in the first place the good ole days ?? at least the average working family could afford to eat in 1970
Comment from : @tonyadeney1245

I remember this
Comment from : @johnobrien8398

£1 equals to 20 Shillings and the one Shilling equals to 12 Pence How weird!
Comment from : @NoSuffix

Con
Comment from : @GeoffPope-y2z

I was 15 when we went “decimal” and remember learning in both systems as school especially in maths as all the textbooks were still in the old currency, many shopkeepers did well always rounding up whenever the opportunity arose
Comment from : @apb1934

The day little backwards Britain was dragged into the international world of sense
Comment from : @DavidHoins

Give more - get changebrbrUse your old coppers in sixpenny lots
Comment from : @srfurley

Biggest Ripoff going what was 12d suddenly became 15p after the change ( 3 times as much ) we had inflation never seen before
Comment from : @keisha989

I remember the school had cardboard coins for us to work with but most of them got robbed
Comment from : @robertmcgivern6585

Yet, they still drive on the wrong side of the road
Comment from : @LyleFrancisDelp

1971 was the year I left school, so £sd to decimal conversion is hard-wired into my brain 😊
Comment from : @jimsimpson1006

I remember Decimsl Day, I was working in a department store in the food area ,there wasn’t an exact correlation between the two systems at the pence end No prices were rounded down but rounded up The store made a pretty good profit on rounding up that day!
Comment from : @lauchlanmcewan1748

Things you learn I thought non-decimal currency died out in the middle of the Middle-Ages
Comment from : @MrMegaPussyPlayer

I still remember getting on a bus during the transition and giving the driver a sixpence and a 2p coin for a 4p ride He was totally freaked-out and unable to figure out the change
Comment from : @martinstent5339

Some of the old coins from before 1942 (I believe) actually contained real silver
Comment from : @malicant123

Why does the UK still use miles? I’m glad they do but just curious
Comment from : @turdferguson12

Thank goodness! You need a math degree to understand the old way
Comment from : @turdferguson12

Feels like Americans with the metric system and celsius "What is that in fahrenheit? How much is that in inches/feet/miles? How many pounds/gallons is that?" Metric is a nice base ten system and celsius makes sense but it's hard to imagine the units in relation to real life experience
Comment from : @RevRod92

Today, in 2023, this seems much ado about nothing
Comment from : @williamjones7163

Mizoram 🇮🇳🇮🇳ok
Comment from : @lalnunzauahnamtelalnunzaua3527

doing this for a maths lesson, to learn how to take notes lmao
Comment from : @illegallylexi

Australia and New Zealand went £1 was $2, so one shilling was 10 cents Ignoring the 12 conversion factor, this was much easier than what you Brits went through
Comment from : @YourUncleAngMoh