Talk:Decimal Day

message: The BOPCRIS website has been changed in January 2008 and the references from there are dead.  I have added title and author information that I have been able to find in Google's cache but couldn't update the links properly because the content isn't on the new BOPCRIS site yet.  79.64.202.189 (talk) 00:39, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Dead references

message: Presumably a misspelling of 'ducat', 'gold coin formerly current in most European countries' (OED), but why is it being mentioned here? Awien 12:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  ducket 

message: Which government thought up the change? - specifically, who was behind it? Why? What was the rationale behind it? Which government implemented it? (Decimal coinage went into circulation in 1968 - this isn't mentioned.) Who were the ministers responsible for it? What factors influenced it?
This is a pretty poor article as it doesn't attempt to give any explanation as to why this policy was forced through, but merely covers the implementation. What about public opinion of the policy? Most people were opposed to it; it didn't have a great deal of public support. There were several towns/villages that refused to change for months, in protest; these should be mentioned.
Now, I don't know the answers to these questions, but they're pretty important facts. As it stands, this article really doesn't say much of any relevance!
Another important fact: the official name of the currency unit currently in circulation in the UK is new pence - not simply pence, which still legally refers to a 240th of a pound. This seems undermine the 'history of the penny' series somewhat! 62.253.64.13 04:04, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, a quick examination of the change in my pocket reveals that current British coins simply say "Pence", with "TWO PENCE", "TEN PENCE," etc written across the top, and it's only older coins that say "NEW PENNY" or "NEW PENCE" (the latest one I have in my pocket with the "NEW" rather than the value written out is a 1978 penny, but, since the next oldest coin I have is a 1992 10p, I have no idea when the actual changeover occurred). - SoM 18:46, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: See British coin One Penny - "NEW PENNY (1971–1981) or ONE PENNY (1982–present)". -- ALoan (Talk) 10:27, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  high on waffle, low on facts 

message: I wonder, was there any consideration of a non-decimal simplification of the coinage?  For example, it seems to me that a rather logical system would've been simply to eliminate the penny as a unit altogether, leaving only pounds and shillings.  The old threepence and sixpence could then be simply redefined as quarter-shilling and half-shilling.  Would've allowed most of the old coins to remain in circulation while eliminating those denominations that had become inconveniently small due to inflation (penny, halfpenny, farthing)
Would also have prevented England from succumbing to the decimalisation craze that's swept other currencies :-)
:Having studied the subject for the past couple of days, the answer seems to be a definite no! 80.42.46.224 17:47, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: It was certainly done at RAF Brize Norton - everything on the base was priced in whole shillings in 1966. This helped the Americans at the base understand the money.--EmleyMoor 08:17, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

text: Ah, on looking again I see a suggestion of a "Royal" of 100 old halfpence.  Curious.  —Tamfang (talk) 07:47, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm sure that was one of the alternatives considered by the Royal Commission.  However, that would have meant scrapping the pound sterling, which was a major reserve currency.  I've never seen the Royal Commission's report, but that would have meant, scrapping every denomination from the threepence on up, including paper money.  And you'd still have those oversize pennies.  Top down is more convenient for the bankers, rather than bottom up.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:25, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

text: Probably you are right.  One of the favorite techniques of Royal Commissions and the like is to present alternatives that aren't really practical to steer the decision makers in the direction of the sole practical answer.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:18, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Non-decimal simplication? 

message: It may seem odd that Pounds Shillings and Pence were abbreviated as L S D, rather than P S p. In fact, the letters L S D derive from Anglo-Norman French: Livres, Sols et Deniers.
:Or, indeed, the Latin libra, solidus and denarius.  See £sd. -- ALoan (Talk) 10:40, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pounds, Shillings and Pence 

message: Shouldn't there be a scale on the images, to show that the old pence coin was much larger ?
-- Beardo 15:04, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Coin images 

message: Jmcc150  has edited on the understanding that "The government did not call the new coins pee, the public did", but this conflicts with the cited source on Money slang history which says that "Mostly in return we got the 'Pee' (being the  official pronunciation of the abbreviation: p for new pence.)" A source is needed for the current statement that The government hoped that in speech the new units would be called "new pence", but the public decided that it was clearer and quicker to call the new coins "pee". - - dave souza, talk 17:21, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Pee

message: As a British computer geek of mature years, I am old enough to remember some of the issues that arose when performing arithmetic on monetary quantities in pounds, shillings and pence. In fact, I have a vague memory that the version of COBOL implemented on ICL computers in the 1960's had a special PICTURE clause to handle old money. Can anyone else recollect this? --Portnadler 09:40, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I saw this 6 years later, but better late than never! I must be of slightly less mature years, but while scrabbling around in my employers' computer library in the 80s or 90s I did once come across a manual for the ICL1900 (or possibly even the ICT1900) COBOL which explained how to do maths in old money. I never did read it, as it was a curiosity even then, but I can certainly confirm that it existed! -- Arwel Parry (talk) 00:41, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pre-Decimal Computer Programming 

message: It is stated that the term 'tuppence' is rarely heard today. Not only is it part of phrases such as "I wouldn't give you tuppence for that", which is very common here in South Lincolnshire, but I probably hear the word spoken everyday by my customers (yes, I work in a shop!). I think therefore that it might be appropriate to qualify the statement somewhat.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.68.104.198 (talk) 19:41, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  tuppence =

message: USD equivalent as of when? Decimal day? The time of writing, whenever that was? Needs explaining.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.134.30.41 (talk) 20:27, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  USD equivalents in decimal conversion table 

message: :Image:Irish coin 1p (1980).jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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BetacommandBot (talk) 19:58, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:Irish coin 1p (1980).jpg

message: :Image:British coin 1d (1964).jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:59, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:British coin 1d (1964).jpg

message: What became of it? The Decimal Currency Board was wound up in September 1971, ahead of schedule, but there seems to be no indication on what happened to the DA (there is no connection with the Metric Association). Jackiespeel (talk) 17:59, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Decimal Association

message: In the first episode of Doctor Who in 1963 the character Susan mentioned that the decimal system hasn't established yet. This was before the announcement.
:Science fiction is full of doing things a bit differently from the present as a short hand for saying someone is in or from the future. This is one of the more accurate predictions because it doesn't tie itself down to any particular date (and with creeping inflation it was likely that decimalisation would come at some stage), but the series also predicted a British space programme with manned flights to Mars & a third BBC channel in the near future of the early 1970s, or a King, five pound coins in general circulation and metric road signs in the 1990s; all predictions that didn't come to pass in timespan implied. Timrollpickering (talk) 23:04, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Doctor Who Reference

message: Can I add a link to my own article ? Some of the 19th suggestions #were# rather impractical or incomprehensible. Jackiespeel (talk) 17:11, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you for bringing it to attention of talk page, which is the proper procedure that too few follow.  I say go for it!  Although I have an interest in the subject, the references I have are few and tangential.  It looks like a fine article (I skimmed it and look forward to reading it in detail).--Wehwalt (talk) 17:16, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

text: I think we can only hold a few examples in this article.  Feel free to write about it at length in a different article, something like "Proposals for decimal currency in the United Kingdom", say.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:58, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Links

message: One vestige of the pre-decimal days in Britain, though not Ireland, is reference to e.g. "the 10p tax rate" rather than "the 10% tax rate".  While "6d in the £" was perhaps more meaningful to the man in the Clapham omnibus than "2.5%", I don't think "10p in the pound" is any clearer than "10%". On 28 April 2008, an article in The Economist said "To pay for a cut in the basic rate of income tax in his final budget as chancellor last spring, Mr Brown removed the 10p ($0.20) starting rate"; a currency conversion whose absurdity was pointed out in a letter printed the following week. 
I have read that some non-obvious odds used by British and Irish bookmakers reflect round figures in pre-decimal stakes, though I don't have examples. 100/30 returns 100d = 8s4d for a stake of 30d = half-a-crown; but 8s4d doesn't seem very round. jnestorius(talk) 16:09, 28 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I must admit I have not gone often to the races when in the UK, but that's not something I've heard of and it might be a problem as the half crown is .125 of a pound, which could be a problem to pay out (say on a five pound bet).  I think the more common usage is to pay in guineas, which I understand still goes at pricey antique places and for horse sales.  I'd love to improve this article at least to GA, but we are desperately short on source material.--Wehwalt (talk) 16:54, 28 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Remaining vestiges of pre-decimal usage 

message: The term Decimal Day was also used in other Commonwealth countries as well.
These countries changed their currencies on Decimal Day;
Australia - 14 February 1966 - Australian pound replaced by Australian dollar.
India - 1 April 1957 - [[Indian rupee] decimalised to being 100 Naye Paise instead of 16 Annas.
Malawi - 15 February 1971 - Malawian pound replaced by Malawian kwacha.
New Zealand - 10 July 1967 - New Zealand pound replaced by New Zealand dollar.
Pakistan - 1 January 1961 - Pakistani rupee decimalised to being 100 Pice (or Paisa) instead of 16 Annas.
Rhodesia - 17 February 1970 - Rhodesian pound replaced by Rhodesian dollar.
South Africa - 14 February 1961 - South African pound replaced by South African rand.
Western Samoa - 10 July 1967 - Western Samoan pound replaced by Western Samoan tala.
Someone needs to do some research and add these and other Commonwealth countries' decimal changeovers to the article. - (203.211.77.38 (talk) 09:33, 18 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  The term 'Decimal Day' was also used in other Commonwealth countries as well. 

message: I was in (what is now called) Year 5 at primary school on 15 February 1972. It was definitely called __Decimalisation Day__ or __D-Day__, not _Decimal Day_.
There were slogans (jingles) about spending your old money in sixpenny lots.
Part of the process was an official conversion table between amounts in old and new pence, which rounded some amounts up and others down. There were posters, mugs, tea-towels, aprons, you name it, showing this table.   It was an important feature of the experience of ordinary people going through decimalisation and it should certainly feature on this Wikipedia page.  Unfortunately I don't have a copy of it available, but no doubt it can be found somewhere on the Web, in the various forms that I have mentioned.
I recall an incident at school when the teacher was collecting dinner money (ie for school lunches).  The daily rate was some amount (unfortunately I forget how much) that was rounded up, whilst the weekly rate (five days) was rounded down. Someone in my class complained about being made to pay five times the new daily rate instead of the conversion of the weekly one.
Here, for example, is a tea-towel, though this is not the layout of the table that I remember:
http://theteatowelsociety.com/photo/tt16/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paul Taylor (talk • contribs) 13:01, 5 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  D-Day official conversion 

message: Maybe it should be mentioned that also other states had thes Decimal Day:
South Africa: 10 Shilling became 1 Rand, Australia: 10 Shilling became 1 Au$.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.147.195.18 (talk) 11:38, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other countries: ZA + AUS 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The following comment was posted by User:Safinaskar to the main article in this edit. Since this appears to have been intended as a talk page comment, I am reproducing it below. --Ahecht (TALKPAGE) 01:52, 1 May 2018 (UTC)
replies: text:  You have it somewhat backwards. In english, "one twentieth" meant "1/20" and "twelve" means "12". --Ahecht (TALKPAGE) 01:53, 1 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comment from [[User:Safinaskar]] 

message: "Sixpence is two and a half new pence"
"Use your old money in sixpenny lots"
We should cover these if possible.
All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 16:10, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Jingles/songs

message: No mention here of the fact (I have no evidence other than memory) that there was an 18-month transition period planned during which shops would be required to take both old and new money; but in practice adoption was so rapid that the transition period was quickly shortened.
There was also a big "save the tanner" campaign in the tabloid media (to retain the 6d coin, now worth 2.5p). I remember the bus companies pushing for this rather vigorously.
Surprisingly little comment in the media today about the 50th anniversary.
Mhkay (talk) 10:34, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title: Transition period

message: Are there any notable organisations or individuals that call, or have called, for the reintroduction of a pound worth 20 shillings of 12 pence each? Considering the wave of reactionary sentiment accompanying Brexit, I could imagine a significant portion of the British population supporting that idea. Steinbach (talk) 20:24, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Calls for reversal 

message: In 1971, I worked in a furniture shop and we had £.s.p. in our tills until the close of day on 27th February, the day I was married. The shop was closed on Sunday as most shops were. The lady that I worked with was furious with me as she had to change both the bought ledgers (mine) and her own sales ledgers before the shop opened on Monday. The new currency was then introduced on Monday 1st March. So I have always been under the impression that the official day was Monday 1st March.  Well, that was how it was in Clemersons &Sons Ltd. 2A00:23C1:9D80:700:1074:1B:6253:5E02 (talk) 22:14, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Date of decimalisation