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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
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.[17]Because of extensive preparations and the publicity campaigns organised by the British government, Decimal Day itself went smoothly. Some criticism – such as the fact that the new 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 used new pennies as sixpences in vending machines.[18] 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, and so most of them were quickly taken out of circulation.The new halfpenny, penny, and twopence coins were introduced on 15 February 1971. Within two weeks of Decimal Day, the old penny (1d) and old threepence (3d) coins had left circulation, and old sixpences had become somewhat rare.[18] On 31 August 1971, the 1/2d, 1d and 3d were officially withdrawn from circulation, ending the transition period to decimal currency.[19]The government intended that in speech, the new units would be called "new pence";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
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