"Old Money" - pounds, shillings and pence

r00fie1

r00fie1

Well-known member
I remember getting a 10/- note for my tenth birthday.
I used to get a tanner for chopping firewood for my Great Grandad on a Saturday morning and a shilling from taking the pop bottles back to the offie.

We used to soak old pennys in vinegar in a saucer - and they came out shiny as new.
It was great finding an old Victorian penny - still got some somewhere :)(y)Birthday treat.jpeg
 
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Me and my sister used to get half a crown pocket money from my Granny every week - that was good money in those days.
I still think 10 shillings is a lot of money, definitely worth a lot more than 50p.
 
HolgateCorner said:
Me and my sister used to get half a crown pocket money from my Granny every week - that was good money in those days.
I still think 10 shillings is a lot of money, definitely worth a lot more than 50p.
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I could get into the flicks on Saturday for a shilling an have three penorth of jelly babies.
I think first film I saw was The Jungle book.(y)
 
You could go into the town, buy three suits, two overcoats and a good pair of boots, buy half a stone of peanuts, go and see George Formby at the Palace Theatre, have a slap up meal, get blind drunk and travel home First Class in the bus and still have change out of a farthing.

You try telling that to the young people of today, and they’ll not believe you.....
 
I remember decimalisation at school, I was in 3rd year infants when we suddenly switched from doing sums in pounds, shillings and pence to the ‘new pence’ as it was then. Stones, pounds and ounces turned into grammes and Kilogrammes.
I never thought anything about it at the time but I now consider myself lucky to remember the old currency and the transition to the new one, that doesn’t happen very often does it?
 
HolgateCorner said:
I remember decimalisation at school, I was in 3rd year infants when we suddenly switched from doing sums in pounds, shillings and pence to the ‘new pence’ as it was then. Stones, pounds and ounces turned into grammes and Kilogrammes.
I never thought anything about it at the time but I now consider myself lucky to remember the old currency and the transition to the new one, that doesn’t happen very often does it?
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We had a girl at Schools who's Dad owned a shop. She brought some in to show the Class through the teacher. It was like foreign currency at the time.
 
Miles can be confusing, I think that's 1760 yards to the mile but when we start to talk about chains , poles etc I forget..8 furlongs to a mile? ( I'm not googling. It!)
 
My Gran got me and my brother a presentation case each with all the coins from the year of our date of birth in. They were all shiny and the case looked great. I put mine away in a cupboard. About 15 yrs later (and after decimalisation) I thought I would show my young cousin what the old coins looked like.
I got the case out and in it was a Farthing. All the rest had gone.
My brother admitted to spending them all years earlier but the Farthing went out of legal tender in 1960 so he couldn't spend it and left it in the case. What a git.
 
I still remember getting a 'cone' of chips & scraps for 1d from a chippie on the way to Breakwater.
The cone was newspaper with a little bit of greaseproof paper on the inside...more often than not you still got newsprint on some of the chips.
 
Blf said:
My Gran got me and my brother a presentation case each with all the coins from the year of our date of birth in. They were all shiny and the case looked great. I put mine away in a cupboard. About 15 yrs later (and after decimalisation) I thought I would show my young cousin what the old coins looked like.
I got the case out and in it was a Farthing. All the rest had gone.
My brother admitted to spending them all years earlier but the Farthing went out of legal tender in 1960 so he couldn't spend it and left it in the case. What a git.
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Sounds like you were short changed.
 
Can you imagine trying to do a financial spreadsheet in the old money? Including a column for guineas, obviously (£1/1/- for the kids, or £1.05 today).
 
I still look at a loaf of sliced bread sometimes and think, “Nineteen shillings for that??!“ You could buy a small Hornby train or almost four subbuteo teams for that in the early 70s.
 
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I trained as an accountant using £sd. It wasn't that difficult. There were adding machines using £sd. My first salary was £800 pa.
 
Yes, this brings back memories. I used to collect "milk money" on a Friday night for George Cottle who delivered milk in much of Thornaby in the 60's and 70's. My round was mainly Laburnam Ave and Thorntree Rd and streets off, but also including one at the the top of one tower block on the airfield!!... Lifts rarely worked! Anyway the price of a pint when I started was about 9 1/2d 1966/7 ish rising to 11 1/2d ish a couple of years later when I went to college. I did my own addings up and paid myself 8d in the pound which on an average weekly take of at least £60 was in those days good beer money! I actually got very proficient at adding columns of pennies and half pennies up instantly whilst running a finger down the page. Couldn't do it now though! Happy days!
 
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