A Look at Decimalization Day 45 Years Ago

“… must adapt yourself …”

– His Last Bow (LAST)

Forty five years ago, on February 15th, was D-Day or Decimalization Day in the United Kingdom. We recently reprinted W.E. Dudley’s A Coming Plague from the June 1971 Baker Street Journal, where he shared his strong opinions about the switch to a decimal currency from the old system of pounds, shillings and pennies.

We came across three videos related to Britain’s changeover to the decimal currency system. The first is a news report produced in February 1970, one year out from the change, about the process of making new coins, effects on commerce and the education process for consumers.  It’s interesting to note that one benefit of switching to the decimal currency was that it would six months of classroom time from the old system.

Our next video is by the Decimal Currency Board and offers a quick conversion from shillings to pence.

Our last video is a comedy segment from the April 21, 1966 edition of The Frost Report on BBC. Newsman David Frost introduces academian / humorist Tom Lehrer who reworked his earlier song New Math into a ditty about decimal coinage. It’s well worth the three minutes to listen to.