Decimalisation

Ready Reckoners were all the go years gone by.
Now I doubt if any one would know what they are.
But now there are very few in retail or anywhere outside of banks handling cash who can do any form of mental arithmetic, all done for them by machine now.
Sad as it means that they are total stuffed without that back up. Most could be ripped off and would not know it.

But Terry here in Oz we got smart, 1 and 2 cents coins went out in late 80's. Still have the 5 cent piece which cost 6 cents to make but most end up in charity pots so gov not keen on removing them. We round up or down to the nearest 5 cents, or dollars when it matters.

The minuscule 5 pence piece that we have here is subject along the south coast to a wonderful idea the RNLI have issued empty jam jars which they encourage you to put your 5 pence pieces in and return them to the RNLI when full I believe they hold quite a good amount of money and I thought what a good way of putting a different aspect on collecting

I am not convinced though that the idea of bringing up decimalisation John is to convince Cathy that you don't have him 3 and 9 that you actually owe him 25 Australian cents

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Originally Posted by robpage

The minuscule 5 pence piece that we have here is subject along the south coast to a wonderful idea the RNLI have issued empty jam jars which they encourage you to put your 5 pence pieces in and return them to the RNLI when full I believe they hold quite a good amount of money and I thought what a good way of putting a different aspect on collecting

I am not convinced though that the idea of bringing up decimalisation John is to convince Cathy that you don't have him 3 and 9 that you actually owe him 25 Australian cents

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We have tose up here also. You can also donate used postage stamps, they are still accepted.

Maybe someone can remember the actual day of decimalization, I can’t because was out of the country. Whenever it was my wages stayed the same all the way through this period.
So I assume for example if you were on 10 pounds a week before, you were on 10 pounds a week after.
Take one penny oxo cube for example which had remained at. That price for decades.
Before decimalisation you could get 240 for a pound.
After decimalisation you could get 100 for a pound.
This is only one example. How much an oxo cube costs today I don’t know off hand.
Cheers. JS

Decimilasation released inflation on the country in my opinion.
In answer to your question a box of six Oxo cubes is about £1.00
Vic

Thanks Vic , have been informed by a reliable source that decimal currency started on the 15 feb. 1971. This also lines up with my ideas of the country’s start. Of going down the gurgler. We had already had in the Wilson government previous to this a limit of a personal allowance of 50 pounds leaving the country. At that time I was working in Canada and during the time of their Expo in Montreal wondered at how many British people still visited , even then 50 quid would last about a Day in an hotel.. so in 1970 an oxo cube was 1 penny old. In 1971 given the benefit of the doubt was 2.5 old pence . And today 12 oxo cubes is 1 pound or 240 pence old money , which makes them 20 pence each . Which is about 200 % inflation . Or maybe my arithmetic is wrong. Maybe someone with more skills can work it out. That coincides with about the time that everything fell apart. Cheers JS

What about our allotments we sent back home. Up until 1971 I was sending my old Mam a weekly amount to help her out after decimalization I did give it some thought I can remember paying 8p for a pint of bitter in 71 a lot of people never realized it was a real hike in prices which wages weren't matched I remember discussing this with my old man at the time I had just been away for 12 months and as he said your Mam wont understand that if you drop her money and believe me lad she uses it wisely. So continued sending her the same not that it mattered them days young free and single. I was only ever a one week millionaire who spent his time waiting to go back to sea. Terry.

I well remember the 50 quid ban on money leaving the country.
This was after Wilson devalued the pound but said, 'the pound in your pocket is still worth a pound'.

Very true but it bought about 10% less of any goods.

Went to Catolica in Italy that year for holiday. 50 quid we were told, but apparently travel cheques did not count so managed to take about 100 pounds.

##with ref to the 50 quid limit i was on holiday in malta ....but i had a barclaycard ......and just got what money i needed off the card in the hotel dragonara......no problems ......cappy

Our head of the reserve bank out here said he would like to see inflation rise to 3%, it's now supposed to be 2half%, in real time it's a lot
higher,are these people for real, with wages and pensions stagnant for the last five years. I would like to go back to the time where my mum said go down the grocers for a bottle of tomato sauce and she would give me the same money I paid for the last one three months previous, now you have to carry a card to make sure you have enough, then the bank asks you if you want to increase your borrowing.
Cheers Des