15th January 1971 was a Monday morning and that day I decided to buy a sandwich on my way to work just so I could try out the new currency. The idea was to pay with a higher value note or coin in "Old money" (£sd) and to receive change in new pence. Initially prices were in "np" but as the new money came into wider use the "n" was dropped and labels were in £ and p as they are today.
The changeover took about six months and was met with some resistance by older people but everyone had to use "new" money eventually.
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| 1971 coins above, 2021 coins below |
Our coins have changed since 1971. The half pence piece and two-and-a-half pence coins are no longer in use. The 5p and 10p coins we use now are smaller than those first decimal coins.
How long will it be before we no longer have cash? I don't look forward to that day.
Hello Mary,
ReplyDeletePerhaps for those of a certain generation, we shall all remember where we were and what we were doing on the day that decimal currency arrived. How wonderful that you have a presentation case of the 'new' coins. It is so interesting to look back and make comparisons with the coins and notes in circulation today. As the coins get thinner and more oddly shaped so the notes become more plastic. As you say, will there be a day when it all disappears completely?
We can certainly say that a cash economy is alive and thriving in Budapest. Indeed, when we first arrived, some 20 years ago, cash was the only useful way of paying for anything as card facilities, even when advertised, rarely worked. As nobody likes paying taxes here [who does] cash is the easiest way to slip through any nets. So, often no invoices for work done, no records kept, just cash exchanged for work done.
A different world....and the forint not the euro.
This was news to me. Now when I read English novels I'll have a better sense of the coinage.
ReplyDeleteThis was featured on the local radio this morning and led to a long discussion over our first cup of tea as to what a florin was!!
ReplyDeleteWe had a friend while I was growing up that traveled to the UK and Ireland. She gave me a 10 shilling note that I still have.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It's as close to being cashless right now - I can't remember the last time I opened my purse to get coins out but it will be awkward, to say the least, to be completely without cash. How will we pay for parking if we don't own a smartphone?
ReplyDeleteWhat can we give to beggars? How to reward a child who has done you a good turn - or simply been good? Will the ice cream man have a card machine? Indeed, will street sellers have card machines? And when a neighbour thoughtfully brings a loaf and half a dozen eggs from her shopping trip, how will we pay her?
And - I remember my Mum sending me down the street to the butcher on a Saturday, clutching a 10 bob note in my hand; I was to get "a piece of beef for 7/6 and weighed without the fat on"!
ReplyDeleteTranslation for younger readers - a 10 bob note was a bank note worth 10 shillings (in today's money 50p); 7/6 was 7 shillings and sixpence worth today 37 and a half pence (it took me a while to work that out!) and Mum always asked the butcher to remove the fat from the meat then put it back on top after weighing the meat on its own!
Is it 50 years? I remember teaching the transition, not the easiest thing.
ReplyDeleteI can see how the transition to the new coins would have been tricky. I often pay in cash because that is one less way the government and corporations (who are very nosy about our spending habits and where we go, etc.) can track us. So I believe using cash when convenient is in support of freedom.
ReplyDeleteI don’t look forward to it either but I am afraid we are almost there
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