Happy Decimal Day!

It was forty years ago today that the good people of Knifecrime Island ushered in the age of decimalization, although they spelled that with an ‘s’: “The country went to bed on Sunday night with 240 pennies to the pound, and woke up on Monday morning with 100. Silver coins continued in circulation (with the shilling and florin worth 5p and 10p respectively), including the heptagonal 50p which had been around for a few years in place of the ten shilling note. But it was only on February 15th 1971 that we got our hands on the new coppers. Theae had no direct pre-decimal equivalent, so lots of people went shopping with helpful cardboard ready reckoners to aid conversion.”