Manky Monkey Motors

Found this on the Beeb's website   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12346083

For those of us you of a certain age, this is all a bit of nostagia, for those 'youngsters', it'll be a bit of (confusing?) history.
Me? I'm farrrrrrrr too young!  ::)  ::)  ::)

For those who know thier Cockney Rhyming slang, thought I'd include a piccie of one of the old coins  ;D


From the beeb:

Do you remember the tanner, shilling, florin and half crown?

If you do, you must be at least in your 40s, because it was back in February 1971, 40 years ago, that Britain "went decimal" and hundreds of years of everyday currency was turned into history overnight.

On 14 February that year, there were 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. The following day all that was history and the pound was made up of 100 new pence.

Decimalisation - having a currency based on simple multiples of 10 and 100 - had been a long time coming to Britain.

France and the United States had gone decimal in the 1790s. Britain first thought about doing the same in the 1820s but the idea did not gather momentum.

Prior to 1971, the closest Britain came to decimalisation was in 1849 with the introduction of the florin - a coin worth two shillings (24 old pence or 10 new pence) which was one-tenth of a pound.


During the 1960s a number of Commonwealth countries had gone decimal - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

"There was a sense in which there was a momentum behind this," said Dr Kevin Clancy, head of historical services at the Royal Mint. "It would have been a huge disruption, which was one of the reasons governments shied away from it."

"The old money in fact linked right the way back to ancient times," said Catherine Eagleton, curator of modern money at the British Museum.

"So it's the pound of silver divided into 240 pence. It was the historic way the Romans used their money and divided up the denarius which was where the d in L.s.d. (or £sd) for pounds, shillings and pence comes from."



Quick decision

But remarkably it took the government only seconds to decide to get rid of the currency that had served Britain for thousands of years.

It happened one day when the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Jim Callaghan popped next door to see Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

The economist Peter Jay, who was also Mr Callaghan's son-in-law, recalled: "They talked for about 20 seconds and Wilson said 'well why not' and that is how the decision was made... in a few seconds a century and half of argument about decimalisation came to an end."

The decision was announced to Parliament in 1966.



In reality, the change-over between currencies was a gradual process. The Decimal Currency Board (DCB) was created to manage the transition.

Some three years before "D-Day" or Decimal Day, new 5p and 10p coins were introduced. They were of the same size and value as the existing one and two shilling coins. Then in 1969, a 50p coin was introduced to replace the 10-shilling note. The 50p coin was referred to as a 10-shilling coin at the time.

On Monday 15 February 1971, the process was completed when the 0.5p, 1p and 2p coins were introduced and the old pennies were withdrawn.

The banks were closed for four days from the previous Thursday to prepare for the change-over.

Save the sixpence
 
One old coin that survived longer than expected was the sixpence. Worth 2.5p, it remained in circulation until 1980, after a public campaign to keep it.

Dick Taverne, who was chief secretary to the Treasury a year before decimalisation said: "There was a passionate public campaign 'save our sixpence'.

"People were very fond of the coin. They said it was part of our heritage. It was thought a terrible thing to get rid of the sixpence.

"I remember in the course of the debate, one of the Labour members screaming 'But what about the housewife, she is going to miss the sixpence, she is going to be exploited - how dreadful the decision to abolish the sixpence'. It was a very emotive issue."

Forty years on, those old coins are a distant memory for those in their 40s and beyond, and a puzzlement for those too young to have known them.

But pre-decimal pennies are still in use in one part of London where they have a vital role.

They are used to adjust the timing of the pendulum of the clock in the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster, commonly known as Big Ben.

Link from the beeb showing the old coins (but they 'forgot' to show the Half Farthing)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12364921

I keep a sixpence in my wallet and have several threepenny bits at home too!

I thought it was a couple of years earlier but certainly still remember the imperial currency. I remember going to the sweet shop with farthings and getting black jacks. Must be in my 40's then (koff, koff) ;)

On that currency change over day, I was in a Supermarket checkout, when the old lady in front of me uttered this classic complaint to the checkout girl," My Dear, why don't the Government wait for all the old people to die before they introduce such radical changes!!" to which of course there is no printable answer! but that story is absolutely true!  Morrag

I still use the word "bob" for a shilling even now, the kids understand what I mean but only coz they`ve heard it so much from me. 10 bob is still a lot of money in my eyes............my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still miss the old thrup'ney bit!

And the old coins looked like they might be worth something - the latest ones remind me of plastic toy money or chocolate coins!  Sort of half bits of pictures that you have no idea what they are meant to be.

a few years ago I was explaining, to a thirty something friend, that my bike was handling badly and when I said it went round roundabouts like thrupenny bit his eyes just glazed over and it was obvious he had no idea wtf I was talking about, I found that very sad.

Well I digress but I know exactly what you mean cos I had that problem with a bike once!

I  had a field day when they scrapped the old  (big) 5 pence or shilling as it was so rightly named...I collected about £50 worth of them as we was doing a ride over to Germany and the shilling was exactly the same size etc as the 1 Mark coin....lost count of how many ciggy machines we emptied using those lol....Ive still got a load of the old coins in a money box I had when I was a kid...even got a couple of £1 notes...and a few of the old fivers somewhere.....
Shows we are all getting on as we can still remember when our currency was worth something lol...Voodoo...

Excuse me whilst I don my anorak. ;) 

Big Ben is the bell that stikes the hour, the clock itself stangly enough is nameless and the tower is called 'Saint Stephens Tower'

They tried using modern coins to keep the pendulem swinging to time but nothing seems to work as well as the old pennies.

Right, anorak off, coat on and I'm leaving ;)

I was only 4!  ;D

I spose I must have been 4 once.................

4 what?..........

Making me think of the brilliant sketch in Only Fools and Horses when Del takes Trigger to the wine bar and tells him all he has to do to impresses the girls is talk about money, so Trigger says “ I saw one of those old five pounds the other day” !!!

Same sketch a little later, and Del does the leaning on the bar gag  :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdC9aK9nkao

Fools & Horses was never my kind of thing, but that bar gag never fails to make me laugh -when it's endlessly repeated.
I remember the public information ads on the telly, with a young lad explaining the new fangled decimal system to his Nan.
Also remember sitting in the local barber's shop, surrounded by old men smoking pipes, & being fascinated by the farthings under the glass top of the table, trying to add up their value. they were a little before my time, but I used pennies, thruppnies & tanners to buy my sweets at the shop across the road.
Yeah, they were better times.  :)  

err, dunnon if I should admit it but I remember silver thrupenny bits :)

Now you are showing your age I'm 50 and i cant remember them
Merv

I dunno, you youngsters :)

I remember them but not as leagal tender

I have an 18 year old lad in the van with me everyday, and last night on the way home I said something wasn`t worth 10 bob, he screwed his face up then said "what the f**k are you talking about?" so I repeated myself thinking he was disagreeing with my valuation, then he said "what the f**k is 10 bob when it`s at home?". I dispare of the youth of today and such bad language too.

Depressing ain't it.