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Decimal Day (Irish:Lá Deachúil)[1] in theUnited Kingdom andIreland was Monday 15 February 1971, the day on which each countrydecimalised its respective£sdcurrency ofpounds,shillings, andpence.
Before this date, both the Britishpound sterling and theIrish pound (symbol "£") were subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 (old) pence, for a total of 240 pence. With decimalisation, the pound kept its old value and name in each currency, but the shilling was abolished, and the pound was divided into 100 new pence (abbreviated to "p"). In the UK, the new coins initially featured the word "new", but this would later be dropped.
Each new penny was worth 2.4 old pence ("d.") in each currency. Amounts of old pence less than 6d. or 12d. did not convert exactly into multiples of (21⁄2) new pence. Conversion tables were provided, showing how prices in £sd rounded to the new currency:[2] as an example, an old value of £7, 10 shillings and sixpence, abbreviated £7 10/6 or£7 10s 6d, became£7.521⁄2p.
Coins of half a new penny were introduced in theUK andIreland to maintain the approximate granularity of the old penny, but these were dropped in the UK in 1984 and in Ireland on 1 January 1987 as inflation reduced their value.
TheRussian ruble was the first decimal currency to be used in Europe, dating to 1704, though China had been using a decimal system forat least 2000 years.[3] Elsewhere, theCoinage Act of 1792 introduced decimal currency to the United States, the first English-speaking country to adopt a decimalised currency. In France, the decimalFrench franc was introduced in 1795.
Before the 1970s, earlier efforts in the United Kingdom to introduce decimalised currency had failed; in 1824, theUnited Kingdom Parliament rejectedSir John Wrottesley's proposals to decimalise sterling, which were prompted by the introduction of the French franc three decades earlier. Following this, little progress towards decimalisation was made in the United Kingdom for over a century, with the exception of the two shilling silverflorin, first issued on 1849, worth1/10 of a pound. Adouble florin or four shilling piece, introduced in 1887, was a further step towards decimalisation, but failed to gain acceptance and was struck only between 1887 and 1890.
Though little further progress was made, The Decimal Association, founded in 1841 to promote decimalisation andmetrication, saw interest in both causes boosted by a growing national realisation of the importance of ease in international trade, following the 1851Great Exhibition; it was as a result of the growing interest in decimalisation that the florin was issued. In a preliminary report issued in 1857 by theRoyal Commission on Decimal Coinage, the benefits and drawbacks of decimalisation were considered, but the report failed to draw any conclusions on the adoption of a change in currency.[4] A final report in 1859 from the two remaining commissioners,Lord Overstone and Governor of theBank of EnglandJohn Hubbard, came out against the idea, claiming that it had "few merits".[5]
In 1862, theSelect committee onWeights and Measures favoured the introduction of decimalisation to accompany the introduction ofmetric weights and measures.[6]
The Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage (1918–1920), chaired byLord Emmott, reported in 1920 that the only feasible scheme was to divide the pound into 1,000mills (thepound and mill system, first proposed in 1824), but that it would be too inconvenient to introduce. A minority of four members said that the disruption would be worthwhile. A further three members recommended that the pound should be replaced by the royal, consisting of 100halfpennies, with there then being 4.8 royals to the former pound.[7]
| Decimal Currency Act 1967[a] | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
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| Long title | An Act to provide for the introduction of a decimal currency in the year 1971; and to regulate the constitution and functions of the Decimal Currency Board. |
| Citation | 1967 c. 47 |
| Territorial extent | [b] |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 14 July 1967 |
| Commencement | 15 February 1971[c] |
| Repealed | 2 May 1986 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends | |
| Amended by | Coinage Act 1971 |
| Repealed by | Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1986 |
| Relates to | Decimal Currency Act 1969 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Decimal Currency (Appointed Day) Order 1968 | |
|---|---|
| Statutory Instrument | |
| |
| Dates | |
| Made | 15 February 1968 |
| Laid before Parliament | 15 February 1968 |
| Other legislation | |
| Made under | Decimal Currency Act 1967 |
Status: Current legislation | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Decimal Currency Act 1969 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act to make further provision in connection with the introduction of a decimal currency, and to impose restrictions on the melting or breaking of metal coins. |
| Citation | 1969 c. 19 |
| Territorial extent | [d] |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 16 May 1969 |
| Commencement |
|
| Other legislation | |
| Amends | |
| Repeals/revokes | |
| Amended by | |
| Relates to | Decimal Currency Act 1967 |
Status: Amended | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
In 1960, a report prepared jointly by theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association ofBritish 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.[8] The adoption of the changes suggested in the report was announced on 1 March 1966.[9] The Decimal Currency Board (DCB) was created to manage the transition, but the plans were only approved by Parliament with the Decimal Currency Act 1967 (c. 47). The formerGreater London Council leaderBill Fiske was named as the chairman of the Decimal Currency Board.
Consideration was given to introducing a new major unit of currency worth ten shillings in the old currency. Suggested names included the "new pound", the "royal" and the "noble". It would have resulted in the "decimal penny" being worth only slightly more than the old penny, an approach adopted in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s, adopting respectively theSouth African rand,Australian dollar andNew Zealand dollar equal in value to 10 shillings. However, Halsbury decided that the pound sterling's importance as areserve currency meant that the pound should remain unchanged.
Under the new system, the pound was retained, but was divided into 100 new pence, denoted by the symbolp. New coinage was issued alongside the old coins. The5p and10p coins were introduced in April 1968 and were the same size, composition and value as theshilling andtwo shilling coins in circulation with them. In October 1969, the50p coin was introduced, with the10s. note withdrawn on 20 November 1970. This reduced the number of new coins required to be introduced on Decimal Day, meaning that the British public would already be familiar with three of the six new coins. Small booklets were made available, containing some or all of the new denominations.
The oldhalfpenny was withdrawn from circulation on 31 July 1969, and thehalf-crown (2s. 6d.) followed on 31 December to ease the transition.[10] Thefarthing, last minted in 1956, had already ceased to belegal tender in 1961.
A substantial publicity campaign took place in the weeks before Decimal Day, including a song byMax Bygraves called "Decimalisation".[11] The BBC broadcast a series of five-minute programmes, titled "Decimal Five", to whichThe Scaffold contributed some specially written tunes.[12] ITV repeatedly broadcast a short drama calledGranny Gets The Point starringDoris Hare, in which an elderly woman who does not understand the new system is taught to use it by her grandson.[13] On 15 February and again the following week, BBC 1 broadcast "New Money Day", aMerry-Go Round schools' programme in which puppet makerPeter Firmin and his small friend Muskit encountered different prices and new coins when they visited various shops.[14][15]
Businesses and government departments devised and implemented staff training for recording and processing financial information using the new currency.[16]
Banks received stocks of the new coins in advance, which were issued to retailers shortly before Decimal Day to enable them to give change immediately after the changeover. Banks were closed from 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday 10 February 1971 to 10:00 a.m. on Monday 15 February to enable all outstanding cheques and credits in the clearing system to be processed and customers' account balances to be converted from £sd to decimal. In many banks, the conversion was done manually, as few bank branches were then computerised. February had been chosen for Decimal Day because it was the quietest time of the year for the banks, shops and transport organisations.
Many items were priced in both currencies for some time before and after the change. Prior to Decimal Day, items priced in both currencies had displayed the price in predecimalised currency first, with the price in decimal currency last in parentheses. From Decimal Day onwards, this order was reversed, with decimal currency presented first, and predecimal currency last in parentheses; for example,1s (5p) would become5p (1s). This latter order was used on mostfootball programmes during the 1970–71 season. High-denomination (10p, 20p and 50p) stamps were issued on 17 June 1970.[10] Post offices were issued with simplifiedtraining stamps in the same colours as the upcoming decimal stamps.[17]
Exceptions to the 15 February introduction of decimalisation wereBritish Rail andLondon Transport, which had gone decimal one day early, the former urging customers, if they chose to use pennies or threepenny pieces, to pay them in multiples of 6d (21⁄2p, thelowest common multiple of the two systems).
Conversion tables were provided, showing how prices in £sd rounded to the new currency:[2] this including saying 3d was equivalent to 1p though 9d was equivalent to 4p. This led to some anomalies: school meals were charged at 1s 9d a day or 8s 9d for a five-day week; these became 9p a day or 45p a week despite the conversion tables suggesting 8s 9d should be 44p.[18]
Because of extensive preparations and the publicity campaigns organised by the British government, Decimal Day itself went smoothly. Some criticisms – such as the fact that thenew halfpenny coin was relatively small, and that some traders had taken advantage of the transition to raise their prices – were levelled, despite the fact that in the latter case, overall price adjustments slightly favoured the consumer.[citation needed] Some people used new pennies as sixpences in vending machines.[19] After 15 February, shops continued to accept payment in old coins but always issued change in new coins. The old coins were then returned to banks, so most of them were quickly taken out of circulation.
The newhalfpenny,penny, andtwopence coins were introduced on 15 February 1971. Within two weeks of Decimal Day, theold penny (1d) andold threepence (3d) coins had left circulation, andold sixpences had become somewhat rare.[19] On 31 August 1971, the 1d and 3d were officially withdrawn from circulation, ending the transition period to decimal currency.[20]
The government intended that in speech, the new units would be called "new pence"; however, the British public quickly began to refer to pennies as "pee" when shortened, with "10p" pronounced as "ten pee" instead of "ten new pence". Other shortenings previously common, such as "tuppence", were now rarely heard, and terms such as "tanner" (used for the silversixpence), which previously designated amounts of money, were no longer used.[citation needed] However, someslang terms, such as "quid" and "bob", previously used for pounds and shillings respectively, survived from predecimal times. Amounts denominated inguineas (21s or £1.05) were reserved still for specialist transactions, and continued to be used in the sale of horses and at some auctions, amongst others.
The public information campaign over the preceding two years helped, as well as 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 asolidus, 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.[citation needed] The willingness of Britain's younger population to embrace decimalisation also helped, with elderly people having greater difficulty in adapting; the phrase "How much is that in old money?", or even "How much is that in real money?" became associated with those who struggled with the change, before in the following decades coming to refer to conversions between metric and imperial weights and measures.[21][22] In shops from Decimal Day onwards, new stock would be universally priced in "new money", though in smaller shops such as newsagents, it was still possible to find stock priced in £sd for several years after 1971; however, remaining stock priced in £sd would still be charged in its equivalent in decimal currency.
Around 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 (shillings/pence) | |
| (new) pence | 1p = £0.01 | |
| Farthing | 1/4d. | 1/48s ≈ 0.104p |
| Halfpenny | 1/2d. | 1/24s ≈ 0.208p |
| Penny | 1d. | 1/12s ≈ 0.417p |
| Threepence | 3d. | 11/4p |
| Sixpence | 6d. | 21/2p |
| Shilling | 1/- | 5p |
| Florin/Two shillings | 2/- | 10p |
| Half crown | 2/6d. | 121/2p |
| Crown | 5/- | 25p |
| Pound | 20/- | £1 = 100p |
| Guinea | 21/- | £1.05 = 105p |
In response to the change, some new coins were defaced, stamped with phrases such as "DUD", despite being an offence under the Coinage Act.[23]
All predecimal coins, except for certain non-circulating coins such ascrowns,sovereigns anddouble florins[24] which were explicitly excluded from demonetisation, are now no longer legal tender. Several other pre-decimal coins remained in circulation beyond 1971 (see below), but have now all been withdrawn following changes to the standards and specifications of circulating coinage.
Thesixpence (6d), worth exactly 21⁄2p, was withdrawn in June 1980. This enabled the withdrawal of the decimal half-penny coin in 1984.
Shillings and florins, together with their same sized 5p and 10p coin equivalents, coexisted in circulation as valid currency until the early 1990s. In theory, this would have included coins dating back to 1816, but in practice, the oldest were dated 1947, as older coins contained silver, meaning the value of their metal was worth more than their nominal value.
The coins were withdrawn when smaller 5p and 10p coins were introduced in 1990 and 1992 respectively. The demonetisation of the larger-size 50p in 1998 means that there are now no sterling coins in everyday circulation dated earlier than 1971.
The face value ofMaundy money coins was maintained, increasing all their face values by a factor of 2.4, as the coins continued to belegal tender as new pence.[25] Thenumismatic value of each coin, though, greatly exceeds face value.
Commemorative 'decimal' Crowns dated 1972, 1977, 1980 and 1981 remain legal tender (with a face value of 25p) as do the£5 coins issued from 1990 onwards.[26]
Thedecimal halfpenny (1⁄2p), which had been introduced in 1971, remained in circulation until 1984, when its value had been greatly reduced by inflation. It was not struck, save for collectors' sets, following 1983, with those dated 1984 struck only as proofs, or in uncirculated mint sets. The decimal halfpenny was demonetised on 31 December 1984. The 50p piece was reduced in size in 1997, following the reduction in size of the 5p in 1990 and the 10p in 1992 (the large versions of all the three have been demonetised). 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 on Decimal Day that are still valid.
In 1982, the word "new" in "new penny" or "new pence" was removed from the inscriptions on coins, and was replaced by the number of pence in the denomination (for example, "ten pence" or "fifty pence"). This coincided with the introduction of a new20p coin, which from the outset bore simply the legend "twenty pence".
A£1 coin was introduced into circulation in 1983,[27] and a£2 coin in 1998 (although a series of commemorative uni-metallic £2 coins had been issued between 1986 and 1996 to celebrate special occasions).
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When the old£sd system (consisting of pounds, shillings, and pence) was in operation, the United Kingdom and Ireland operated within thesterling area, effectively a single monetary area. TheIrish pound was created as a separate currency in 1927 with distinct coins and notes, but the terms of the Currency Act 1927 obliged the Irish currency commissioners to redeem Irish pounds on a fixed 1:1 basis, and so day-to-day banking operations continued exactly as they had been before the creation of the Irish pound.[28] The Irish pound was decimalised on 15 February 1971, the same date as the British pound.[29]
This arrangement continued until 1979 when Irish obligations to theEuropean Monetary System led to Ireland breaking the historic link with sterling.[30]
In Ireland, all pre-decimalcoins, except the1s,2s and10s coins, were called in during the initial process between 1969 and 1972; theten shilling coin, which, as recently issued and in any event equivalent to 50p, was permitted to remain outstanding (though due tosilver content, the coin did not circulate widely). The 1s and 2s were recalled in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Pre-decimal Irish coins may still be redeemed at their face value equivalent ineuros at theCentral Bank in Dublin.
Pre-decimal Irish coins were denoted withs for shillings andd for pence, abbreviations derived from the Latinsolidi anddenarii, in contrast to stamps, which instead boreIrish-language abbreviations (scilling ("shilling", abbreviated "s") andpingin ("penny", abbreviated "p")). After decimalisation, coins were marked with the Irish-language abbreviations. While British stamps switched from 'd' to 'p',Irish stamps (unlike the coins) printed the number with no accompanying letter; so a stamp worth 2 new pence was marked '2p' in the UK and simply '2' in Ireland.
The following is a table showing conversions between the Irish decimal and pre-decimal systems. It is identical to the British one, except for lacking most higher-value coins.
| Pre-decimal | Decimal | |
|---|---|---|
| Coin name | Amount (shillings/pence) | |
| Farthing | 1/4d | 0.104p |
| Halfpenny | 1/2d. | 0.208p |
| Penny | 1d | 0.417p |
| Threepence | 3d | 11/4p |
| Sixpence | 6d | 21/2p |
| Shilling | 1/- | 5p |
| Florin | 2/- | 10p |
| Half crown | 2/6 | 121/2p |
| Ten shillings | 10/- | 50p |
Ireland's new decimal coinage had face values of1⁄2p,1p,2p,5p,10p and50p.
The oldshilling coin continued to circulate with a value of 5 new pence, and the oldflorin with a value of 10 new pence.[31] Unlike in the UK, where the sixpence continued to circulate at a value of 21⁄2p, theIrish sixpence was withdrawn from circulation after decimalisation. Theten-shilling note was withdrawn from circulation, but the otherSeries A banknotes continued in use.[32]
Atwenty-pence coin was introduced in 1986.[33] Thedecimal halfpenny (1⁄2p) remained in circulation until 1987, when its value had been greatly reduced byinflation. Very few were produced after the initial minting.[34]
In 1990,the pound coin was introduced,[35] and in 1992 the5p and10p coins were reduced in size. The old shilling and florin coins ceased to belegal tender at the same time.[36]
The Irish pound coins were withdrawn from circulation in 2002, to be replaced by theeuro.[37]
A short information film produced to get Britain ready for decimalisation in February 1971
