Decimalisation Day

Off-topic discussions, musings and chat
tomq
Posts: 61
Joined: Thu 25 Feb, 2010 8:30 am

Re: Decimalisation Day

Post by tomq »

jim wrote:
Tue 16 Feb, 2021 10:11 pm
I wonder if "deaner" is an alternative spelling for dinar, a monetary unit of a number of Mediterranean currencies? The term is itself an adaptation of denarius, a Roman coin. I remember ten shillings being called half a nicker
And the reason that the signifier for the old penny was d.
Tom

jma
Posts: 499
Joined: Fri 05 Aug, 2016 3:38 pm

Re: Decimalisation Day

Post by jma »

Digging around in my memory, I think that one of the things some people found confusing was the retention of some of the old coins with a new designation. I'm thinking in particular of the shilling and two shilling coins which became 5p and 10p. I think the 6d (2½p) was another.

Another little oddity was that organisation were allowed to do their accounting conversion with or without the new ½p.

I particularly remember that because in those days, one of the police allowances was 6d a week lamp allowance. Leeds City Council adopted the ½p conversion table so that converted to 2½p a week, paid as 10p every four weeks on pay day. After amalgamation in 1974 West Yorkshire used the whole new penny conversion so the weekly allowance was converted to 3p ie 12p every four weeks. Today, that sounds laughable, but it was an increase of 20% on what was in those days worth more than it would be today. And significant enough for me to remember.

User avatar
blackprince
Posts: 878
Joined: Tue 04 Sep, 2007 2:10 pm

Re: Decimalisation Day

Post by blackprince »

tomq wrote:
Wed 17 Feb, 2021 8:31 pm
And the reason that the signifier for the old penny was d.
I vaguely remember knowing that from primary school.
But only recently learnt ( 50 years too late!) that LSD, Libra Solidus Denarius, were all Latin in origin.
Solidus and Denarius were both Roman coins.
Libra = pound ( originally had the value of a pound of silver).
It used to be said that the statue of the Black Prince had been placed in City Square , near the station, pointing South to tell all the southerners who've just got off the train to b****r off back down south!

TABBYCAT
Posts: 375
Joined: Mon 02 Apr, 2007 6:55 pm

Re: Decimalisation Day

Post by TABBYCAT »

More French than Roman it would seem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd

Post Reply