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Description
On Monday 15 February 1971, Britain went decimal. The old money - pounds, shillings and pence was replaced by a new system with 100 pence in the pound and no shillings. It seems simple to us, but at the time people were worried about it. Imagine the confusion though, if we were to go the other way now. 1968 being the year of my birth, I didn't really have much use for coinage and so I don't actually remember pre-decimalisation. But, I do remember using the pre-decimalisation coins that were carried over and used as decimal coins for a while - the shilling, the two shilling and the sixpence. Older Brits will no doubt tell me there were others too.

This coin is a 1948 Half Crown - a coin my father gave to me when I was knee high to a grasshopper. Since then I have been fascinated by and collected coins, on a casual basis, including older British and foreign currency. Noticing the same fascination with coins in one of my nephews - aged 7, I recently passed this collection on to him. Who knows, in thirty years time he may be publishing close-ups of coins from the early 2000's online!

Edit: A little bit of online research reveals that the inscription FID DEF IND IMP is mostly heavily abbreviated latin and means 'Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India'. Ah, the good old days. IND IMP was dropped from the design shortly after, as was the use of silver in the coins manufacture.

Description
On Monday 15 February 1971, Britain went decimal. The old money - pounds, shillings and pence was replaced by a new system with 100 pence in the pound and no shillings. It seems simple to us, but at the time people were worried about it. Imagine the confusion though, if we were to go the other way now. 1968 being the year of my birth, I didn't really have much use for coinage and so I don't actually remember pre-decimalisation. But, I do remember using the pre-decimalisation coins that were carried over and used as decimal coins for a while - the shilling, the two shilling and the sixpence. Older Brits will no doubt tell me there were others too.

This coin is a 1948 Half Crown - a coin my father gave to me when I was knee high to a grasshopper. Since then I have been fascinated by and collected coins, on a casual basis, including older British and foreign currency. Noticing the same fascination with coins in one of my nephews - aged 7, I recently passed this collection on to him. Who knows, in thirty years time he may be publishing close-ups of coins from the early 2000's online!

Edit: A little bit of online research reveals that the inscription FID DEF IND IMP is mostly heavily abbreviated latin and means 'Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India'. Ah, the good old days. IND IMP was dropped from the design shortly after, as was the use of silver in the coins manufacture.