Britain in the 60s

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I was still at school when decimalisation came in !!

We went into the local shop to buy sweets/toffees before school with the new coins snd were shocked when we came out with about half as many sweets !!

I bet that penny chews were difficult to sell because of inflation.

Watching that Funny Money documentary, they showed a clip of an Australian PIF which was a black and white cartoon about going decimal, and had the lyrics:

"In come the dollars and in go the cents
To replace the pounds, and the shillings, and the pence..."

[tex]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Went to a 60s concert at the manchester opera house about a month back, on the bill were Hermans hermits, amen corner,Chris farlow,The searchers. Problem was most of the original band members were deceased so you had 30 year old musicians in bands formed 50 years ago. That said it was a most enjoyable show

[Zincubus]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I suppose that the Guinea became defunct when decimalisation arrived in 1971 - I am surprised that Australia didn't even keep the pound when they went decimal (in 1966?) instead of adopting the dollar.

I was still at school when decimalisation came in !!

We went into the local shop to buy sweets/toffees before school with the new coins snd were shocked when we came out with about half as many sweets !!


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[Richard1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I suppose that the Guinea became defunct when decimalisation arrived in 1971 - I am surprised that Australia didn't even keep the pound when they went decimal (in 1966?) instead of adopting the dollar.

Australia decimalised by introducing the Dollar worth 10 shillings, which was one idea the UK considered for decimalisation, but wanted to keep the pound at the same value.

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I suppose that the Guinea became defunct when decimalisation arrived in 1971 - I am surprised that Australia didn't even keep the pound when they went decimal (in 1966?) instead of adopting the dollar.

[Arran]

Re: Britain in the 60s

A Guinea was a gold coin originally with a face value of £1. It was later realised that they contained too much gold so they were revalued at £1 1s or £1.05 in decimal. Eventually they were replaced by gold £1 coins but the term Guinea remained in popular culture until decimalisation. Even in the 1960s it was common to price in Guineas in posh clothes shops, solicitor's fees, and auctions as a means of bumping up the price by 5%. 20 Guineas = £21. Some landlords charged rent in Guineas as well.

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

And the farthing (a quarter of an old penny) was abolished in 1960 - amazing that one decimal penny is nearly ten times that amount.

I have always been confused about the difference between a pound and a guinea - were they separate currencies originally? I know that a guinea was one pound and a shilling (later 5p of course) - it would have been a bit daft to have issued a £1.05 note as result of directly converting the guinea decimally.

[staffslad]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Agreed, decimalisation coincided with stagflation (stagnation and inflation), but was not a result of it.

[Arran]

Re: Britain in the 60s

The old half penny was demonitised on 1 January 1970 along with the half crown. Everything was in increments of an old penny shortly before decimalisation.

The inflation was not really the result of the changeover to decimal currency but shopkeepers took advantage of unfamiliarity of decimal prices amongst customers to bump the price of goods up a few pence. Shortly afterwards there was the Nixon Shock and the Oil Crisis which resulted in high levels of inflation.

[zabadak]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I remember there was such a thing as a penny wafer in our sweet shop. After decimalisation, there still was! In other words, the manufactures had snuck in a 2.4% price increase!!!

[Richard1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

A bit odd considering that 3d was one and a quarter pence - one would have needed two of them to make up two and a half pence.

Sing a song of two and a half new pence, anyone?

The conversion chart I have in a book from the time has 1p for 3d & 4p for 9d, so it seems lower amounts were rounded down & higher ones were rounded up.

Interestingly there aren't any conversions given for amounts with an old half penny, so I presume these were ignored in the changeover period.

[tex]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Not having ever lived in Britain in the 60s I can not comment here. I will therefore tell you a bit about my country in the 60s. We still had what some called the racist White Australia Policy. Our government forbade all non Europeans from migrating here from the late 40s to the mid 70s.. During this time the first of over 1 million Brits migrated to our shores for some welcome sunshine We colloquially called them 10 Pound Poms as 10 pounds was all an adult migrant had to pay to sail here. That as I understand it is 360 pounds in today's money. Back in the 60s Australia hardly imported anything. We made just about everything. The new trade deals in the 70s that enforced countries to reduce tarriffs on imported goods killed many of our industries and by the 80s we were forced to start importing many products we had earlier made ourselves.

Guys sorry to hijack this thread..

My wife was almost a £10 pom, when she was 5-6 years old her dad got a job in Australia and the family were all set to emigrate but there was a complete change of heart at the last moment and ofcourse it didn't happen,hard to imagine how my own life would of been so different as a result.

[George 1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Late pre-decimal prices seemed to be rounded to the nearest 3d, probably making the switch over easier.

A bit odd considering that 3d was one and a quarter pence - one would have needed two of them to make up two and a half pence.

Sing a song of two and a half new pence, anyone?

[Donald the Great]

Re: Britain in the 60s

Not having ever lived in Britain in the 60s I can not comment here. I will therefore tell you a bit about my country in the 60s. We still had what some called the racist White Australia Policy. Our government forbade all non Europeans from migrating here from the late 40s to the mid 70s.. During this time the first of over 1 million Brits migrated to our shores for some welcome sunshine We colloquially called them 10 Pound Poms as 10 pounds was all an adult migrant had to pay to sail here. That as I understand it is 360 pounds in today's money. Back in the 60s Australia hardly imported anything. We made just about everything. The new trade deals in the 70s that enforced countries to reduce tarriffs on imported goods killed many of our industries and by the 80s we were forced to start importing many products we had earlier made ourselves.

Guys sorry to hijack this thread..

[Richard1978]

Re: Britain in the 60s

I think it was shame as prices would be a lot lower than they would be now - decimalisation and inflation seemed to go hand in hand I assume.

Can you imagine pre-decimal prices being quoted now? Instead of a daily newspaper being 65p for example, a daily newspaper would be 13 shillings - now that is an expensive newspaper!

Late pre-decimal prices seemed to be rounded to the nearest 3d, probably making the switch over easier.