deptfordmarmoset
Full time tea drinker
- Location
- Armonmy Way
Not the sixpence too? It was rather like the current 5p and I've been known to confuse the eldest grandchild by referring to five pence pieces as sixpence.
Question for older cyclists
- Thread starter Yellow Fang
- Start date
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summerdays
Cycling in the sun
- Location
- Bristol
I suppose I can remember it too but it had a nice weight to it!
mustang1
Legendary Member
- Location
- London, UK
In the old days, some nobber would reply with "Google is your friend". I detest people like that. Anyway, who knows what a pegwagwa is?
Aravis
Putrid Donut
- Location
- Gloucester
Please forgive my boyish enthusiasm.
The threepenny bit was nice, but they only went back to 1937. The penny was easily the best. Even at the end you could still find them from as early as 1860 - before that they were made of copper and were much larger. You had the 1918 and 1919 H and KN versions, the 1926 "modified effigy", and the 1902 "low tide" variant to look for. Actually 1926 was quite scarce in any version. The moment triumph when finding any of these - gone forever.
At least I thought so. A few years ago in a secondhand shop, I picked out an Edward VII penny from a tin box, and, glory be, it was a 1902 low tide. All the old excitement came flooding back. I expect I had to pay about 20p for it. I've no idea where it is now, but that doesn't matter - I found it!
Again, please forgive me.
The threepenny bit was nice, but they only went back to 1937. The penny was easily the best. Even at the end you could still find them from as early as 1860 - before that they were made of copper and were much larger. You had the 1918 and 1919 H and KN versions, the 1926 "modified effigy", and the 1902 "low tide" variant to look for. Actually 1926 was quite scarce in any version. The moment triumph when finding any of these - gone forever.
At least I thought so. A few years ago in a secondhand shop, I picked out an Edward VII penny from a tin box, and, glory be, it was a 1902 low tide. All the old excitement came flooding back. I expect I had to pay about 20p for it. I've no idea where it is now, but that doesn't matter - I found it!
Again, please forgive me.
simon.r
Person
- Location
- Nottingham
The new penny was minted from brass (97% copper) prior to 1992 and has, at times when the price of copper has been high, has been worth more that its face value.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
I think it was the Romans L = Libra, S= Solidus, D=Dinarius, I remember calling at the sweet shop on the way to school with a sixpence, and getting a new fangled shiney 1 new penny as change, A work colleague on visiting the coffee machine after a price rise was heard to exclaim bl**dy hell seven bob for a cup of cr*p!
D
Deleted member 26715
Guest
My money memory is of going into the pub around 1977 if you went into the best room, you could only get 3 pints for a quid, but if you went into the back room, you could get 3 pints & 3 packets of crisps & get some change from a quid, I think it was 28p for a pint & 5p a bag of crisps,
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
Scotch usage?
My Dad "took the Kings Shilling" in 1946, which meant you joined up in the Army, and your first weeks pay was one shilling, which even at the time was only worth about £5 of today's money.
They were given two 1946 mint sixpence pieces, which they all trooped down to the local jeweller and had them turned into a pair of cufflinks.
I still have his 1946 silver sixpenny cufflinks
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
I learnt all that for a couple of years at school then they said forget all that, we're going Decimal now.
My pocket money took a big hit r.e. purchasing power.
EltonFrog
Legendary Member
A bit off topic..............but related.
Anyone still got a shoveha'penny board ? I had one me and the kids spent hours messing about on it. IT'S GONE !!!
I don't have one, but coincidentally I went in a pub on Friday and they had one you could play with, hadn't seen one for years.
Edit:
Shove Ha'Penny by Alex Francois
https://appsto.re/gb/Es2Xab.i
Globalti
Legendary Member
In about 1979, eight years after decimalisation, I went with a GF into the Douglas Arms in Bethesda, a village noted for its inhabitants' hostility towards the English. The barmaid served the drinks then said, with a hint of malice in her voice: "That'll be nineteen and six please!". My GF, flustered, replied: "Gosh.... is that more or less than a pound? I can't remember!" This was what the barmaid was waiting for and she pounced: "I can see you're English, you've no EDUCATION!"
Cubist
Still wavin'
- Location
- Ovver 'thill
The conversion maths was a bit of a nightmare. It was the complicated little rounding up and downs that confused. Generally speaking the accepted rate was that an old penny was now worth 1/2p. By the time of the conversion, the 3d bit was out of circulation, the last ones minted in 1970 and demonetised before decimalisation. So the next old coin up the ladder was the sixpence. Conveniently this was half of one twentieth of a pound, so was valued and spent as 2 1/2p. Then the shilling, conveniently reminted as 5p, then the florin or 2/ which was reminted as a 10p. The half crown was no longer in circulation, and the 10/ note had been phased out before 1971. The 50p piece had been knocking around before decimalisation IIRC, and was already called the 10 bob bit.
I was given a game of "decimal dominoes" which had old and new coins on them, and the rules meant you had to match the old coinage to the new values. Very educational!
It was us kids that suffered the most from the process. In those days we were paying pennies for sweets, so we were punished by shopkeepers and their unscrupulous rounding up from a system where our 2 shillings pocket money would buy 24 penny bags of aniseed balls, sherbet lemons or bull's-eyes, only to find that our new 10p could only buy 20 x 1/2p servings. Bastards.
