Decimal Coinage (c.1971-Now)

Decimal Day (15 February 1971) was the day the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies. It is also known as Decimalisation Day and D-Day. more...

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In the United Kingdom

The old system

Under the old currency of pounds, shillings, and pence, the pound was made up of 240 \"old pence\" (denoted by the letter d for Latin denarius), with twelve old pence in a shilling and 20 shillings (denoted by s) in a pound. Especially in an era before widespread computer use, monetary calculations, such as adding up sums of money, could be complicated. Tourists were also confused by coins such as the 'half-crown' (worth two shillings and sixpence, or one eighth of a pound). The loss of value of the currency meant that the penny, with the same diameter as the U.S. half dollar, was of relatively slight value (the farthing, worth one-quarter of an old penny, had been demonetised in 1960).

For further details of the currency before decimalisation, see British pre-decimal system and Irish pre-decimal system.

Background

Following the rejection by Parliament of Lord Wrottesley's proposals to decimalise sterling in 1824 (which were prompted by the introduction in 1795 of the decimal French franc), little practical progress towards decimalisation was made for over a century, with the exception of the two-shilling silver florin (worth 1/10 of a pound) first issued in 1849. A double florin or four-shilling piece was a further step in that direction, but failed to gain acceptance and was only struck from 1887 to 1890.

The Decimal Association was founded in 1841 to promote decimalisation and metrication, causes that were both boosted by a realisation of the importance of international trade following the 1851 Great Exhibition. It was as a result of the growing interest in decimalisation that the florin was issued.

In their preliminary report, the Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage (1856–1857) considered the benefits and problems of decimalisation, but did not draw any conclusion about the adoption of any such scheme. A final report in 1859 from the two remaining commissioners, Lord Overstone and Governor of the Bank of England John Hubbard came out against the idea, claiming it had \"few merits\".

In 1862, the Select Committee on Weights and Measures favoured the introduction of decimalisation to accompany the introduction of metric weights and measures.

Read more at Wikipedia.org