Thursday 5 February 2009

WHAT'S THAT IN OLD MONEY?

Found these coins the other day.
It's the old £SD currency we used before 1971.
The top large one is One Penny.
The small silver one is Brian May's plectrum...er I mean a Sixpenny bit (tanner).
Bottom left is a Ha'penny (hupnae).
Next to it is a One Shilling (bob).
The brassy one with the straight edges is a Threepenny bit (thrupnae).
In the 1960's, these were the coins we got our pocket money in and spent on things like the penny tray and comics.
We'd play pitchy with them in the school playground too.
They also got chucked out of cars at wedding scrammies!
If something cost 2 Shillings it would be written 2/-, and if it cost 2 Shillings and sixpence it would be 2/6d.
I can clearly recall when I was in my last year at Balerno Primary school in 1969/70, we got lessons teaching us how to convert old money to the new Decimal currency which was on the horizon. Us kids got the hang of it pretty quick but the older generation struggled at first when prices in the shops changed from old to new. So when people were trying to figure out the prices when shopping after the transition took place, that's when you would hear the phrase "What's that in old money?".
The big change-over - "Decimal Day" - took place on 15th Feb 1971.

4 comments:

  1. use your old coppers in sixpenny lots

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember we got the day off school 0n D Day. 15th feb 1971.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My first memory of decimal money was in Jim Hogg's the Butcher on Strathmore Avenue opposite the end of Lorimer Street. I was about 5 and my mum looked totally baffled by the change she got...I remember all the money looking very clean and shiney.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I remember getting those tiny tanners from the tooth fairies!

    ReplyDelete