I'm going off at yet another slight tangent here (and I can, because I'm an admin ), but it struck me, even as a twelve-year-old at the time when our currency was dismalised, in February 1971, that there shouldn't have been provision for a 'half-penny' in any new decimal coinage - it was a contradiction in terms.

CfN. Grumpy Old Git.

 
Only the copper coins were changed at decimalisation - the silver 6d, 1/-, 2/- and 2/6 (half crown) coins stayed in circulation, along with the 50p coin that had replaced the 10/- note. So it eased the transition to keep a sixpence as 2^1/2p and the half crown as 12^1/2p.

Plus I remember plenty of people being very angry that prices had been rounded up to the nearest half pee. Bear in mind that a half pee was worth more than an old penny.

 

The half crown was demonetised before D-day - I know because it caused me to have a 20% pay cut, which as a 10 year old stung painfully. My grandma, bless her memory, used to give me a half crown when I visited her, and this reduced to a florin when the half-crown was withdrawn. Sixpence bought a 10 year old quite a bit in 1970.

 

There was plenty of skullduggery going on at the tills too !  Just before D day I bought two items in a supermarket in Dumbarton, each doubly marked 2s 5d and 12½p. I was duly charged 5s - I then pointed out that 2 times 2s 5d was 4s 10d not 5s. The girl on the checkout then said that we were going decimal soon and the decimal price was 12½p - which was 2s 6d.......so that was the price of the item. I then asked to see the manager, he arrived and I explained what had happened...........he rang up "no sale", took 2d out of the till, slammed it down in front of me and walked off - never having said a word.  A double attempted con-trick as the official conversion of 2s 5d was actually 12p !!!

I never darkened that supermarket's door step again............

Later:  I travelled a lot to Germany during the introduction of the Euro - what went on there made the man in Dumbarton look a complete amateur !

But, I digress !

 

I stand corrected! The half crown ceased to be legal tender on 1st Jan 1970, over a year before decimalisation.


I too used to get half a crown pocket money from my Gran, but I don’t remember being similarly swizzled!

The florin was part of an earlier abortive attempt at decimalisation, which led to the two coins with similar values - 2/- and 2/6 - coexisting. All a bit silly really, but fun.

 
My paternal great grandmother (who had remarkable facial hair, which rather spooked me ) had a tradition of sending me a five-shilling postal order on my birthdays. That would have been in the 1960s. 

 
Decimalisation brought an end to many a child’s hobby.  I used to enjoy collecting coins with monarchs’ heads going back to Queen Victoria.  Of course all the new coins were solely Queen Elizabeth II.  It is only now we are starting to see a second monarch’s image slowly appearing in our change. 

 
The 50 new pence coin was introduced well before decimalisation,  in place of, and having the same value as a ten shilling note.
Within memory they were sometimes known as "ten bob coins"

 
I’m afraid I still refer to the 50p coin as a ‘ten bob bit’, much to the annoyance of my kids.

 
Incidentally, why ‘dismalisation’ CfN? Old money was a bit of fun, but the ‘new’ stuff is a lot more practical isn’t it?

It strikes me that had £sd survived, we would by now be on the brink of withdrawing denominations below the shilling anyway - can anyone think of anything that costs less than 5p? And then there’s the general abandonment of cash: without the need to fiddle for change, I suspect a lot of people are quite vague about the precise cost of things below £1.

That having been said, I have of late brought cash back into my life - partly for contrarian reasons. I am surprised how often people gaspin amazement when you try to pay them with, er, money.

 
I have seen it referred to elsewhere as the 'dismalisation' of our currency - I merely included that in my heading for this new topic. 

I agree with you about the withdrawal of lower denomination coins. Who actually uses 1p or 2p coins these days?  In Wetherspoons, for example, I see anyone paying with cash and receiving 1p in change puts it straight into the charity collection tin on the bar.

Cash does indeed still have its uses. In Nailsea, for example, one of the Chinese takeaways is 'cash only' for transactions of less than £10, and in Melksham there is a barbers which is 'cash only' for everything.

CfN.

 
I believe the 1/2p had to be introduced to avoid issues relating to the sixpence retention which was more or less insisted on by vending machine operators and manufacturers. Most of the higher value venders had 6d as an essential unit. The ability to build 2 1/2 p in copper to counterbalance equally the 6d was deemed essential.

 
Another comment from me, if I may, regarding the use of coins?

We are fortunate to have a family business, situated the other side of Clevedon from us in Nailsea, who run a free-range chicken emporium.  They deliver in Nailsea, and take cash only.  They ask £1.50 for half a dozen very fresh, organic, eggs.

They arrived at our front door this afternoon, so I grabbed £3 in coins from our money box in the lounge and bought a dozen.  Tesco charge £2.90 for six!   

CfN. 

 
I remember the 50p piece being called a 'Wilson' as it was 2 faced and 7 sided.  The then prime minister was Harold Wilson.

 

I am not aware of anything costing less than 5p, but there is still a use for smaller coins. What about cheaper food stuffs that sell for say 15p. In the absence of smaller coins, the minmum price increase would be to 20 pence, an increase of over 30%.

 
The minimum stamp for a second class letter is 91p.

 
My personal view is that we may as well do away with the current copper (cupro-nickel) coins.  We'll just deal in multiples of 5p.  That's the least you'll get, these days - even in a charity shop. 

 
Fuel and loose foodstuff inflation would be hit if values under 5p were abolished.

 

I've just found, in a UK online supplier, a surface-mount "zero ohm resistor" priced at 0.2p + VAT. The minimum order quantity is 10, which would set you back 2p. Handling and postage charges (and the inability to pay with coins) ruin the idea.