It’s happened again! A news item telling us that something happened 50 years ago which I remember very clearly and which, therefore, makes me feel older than I want to. Not so long ago it was the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Severn Bridge. Pontypridd Urban District Council decided to run bus excursions just to go over the bridge, stop at the Severn Bridge Services and then return home to Pontypridd. I remember it for the sense of occasion – the awe at the sight of such a bridge and the seeming vastness of the river below. I also remember it because I was sick on the return journey, but that did at least get me a front seat for the rest of the way where the air was fresher than in the rest of the smokey interior.
And today? Well, it’s the fiftieth anniversary of decimalisation when we said goodbye to £.s.d., exchanging them for £.p. So it was Goodbye to my ‘Saturday sixpence’ (my weekly allowance of pocket money) and Hello to my ‘Saturday two and a half pence’. Doesn’t have the same ring does it?
My father was a Decimal Currency Trainer who was tasked with training people with understanding the switch. He did one session at home for my grandmother and aunt, which I helped with. My aunt was all but blind and had to get used to how the new coins felt. It was an especially difficult switch for her, but she still managed to buy me, my sister and brother, a bar of chocolate every Wednesday when she came to visit us.
Who else has memories of the switch? Any stories you’d like to share?
One last thing. As a boy I always wondered why a penny was represented by a d (as in £2, 10s, 6d). It’s only recently I discovered that it stood for denarius, a throw-back to the Roman roots of the old currency.
Take care everyone!
Alan Bailyes 
I remember standing in my mum and dad’s shop with the three of us inspecting the new 50p coin (1969 apparently). I got 2p pocket money. Thanks for clearing up the denarius issue – often wondered about that.
🙂
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Dear Alan,
I love reading your thought provoking blogs and to hear news of you both and especially the good news about Helen’s health.
Perhaps your question was a rhetorical one. Anyway, i thought I would share my story of decimalisation because my problem was the reverse of many others. Forthcoming decimalisation was announced in 1968. I started school in 1969 (I still have my first achool report) and therefore we were taught new pence from the outset. While slow to learn to write, I was quick to lean to count and arithmatic. i think, by the summer of 1970, i must have grasped the rudiments of adding, subtraction and new pence because I remeber to this day the frustration I felt on holiday when we went to the beach store grasping an old penny (I forget how much exactly) and not being able to understand what i could buy with the old money.
The following summer I kew exactly how many sweets I could buy with my holiday pocket money – two chews to the one new penny comes to mind.
I also recall listening to my older brothers referring to this mystical currency with terms such as ‘half a crown’ and ‘two bob’ and coins i didn’t recognise
Blessings to you both
Phil
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Thanks Phil! No, it wasn’t a rhetorical question – I’ve never thought about the confusion being in reverse! Your brother might also have mentioned “a tanner”? Alan
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