2017-02-15 Wed

Today in 1971, United Kingdom became the first English-speaking nation to decimalise their currency. This system is not new because Tsar Peter the great used this system on a Russian Ruble, a century earlier and China had used decimal system for nearly 2000 years.

The Decimalisation of currency system is a process to convert the non-decimal denomination to a decimal system- a structure based on the basic unit of currency and one or more sub-units, such that the number of basic units in one basic unit is a power of 10 or basically 100.

Before 1971, one shilling was equal to 12 pennies and 20 shillings to a pound. Other than this, there were guineas, half-crowns, sixpences and florin. The old system of currency was Pound, shilling, pence or Isd dated back to the Roman times when a pound of silver was equivalent to 240 pence or denarius; due to this, ‘d‘ in Isd was suffixed.

To inform people about this development and changes in currency system, the DCB (Decimal Currency Board) was established. Its main job was to run a public information campaign two years prior to the switchover on 15th February 1971, known as Decimal day.

The new 5p and 10p coins were minted in 1968 in the same size and value as the 1 & 2 shilling. Also, 50p coins were introduced to replace the 10 shilling note (bob). To prepare for this changeover, banks were closed for four days, currency converters were established and price on commodities were printed in both currencies.

Both old and new currencies were circulating together. It was planned to phase out old money in 18 months but the old penny, half penny and 3 penny was taken out of circulation in August 1971.

To mark this event, a first-day cover was issued with the cancellation seal of this day. This change in currency system made the exchange of money easy and sufficient. Though the old generation faced trouble with this new system but the majority of the population adapted it easily......