Today marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of the new decimalisation currency system in the UK. Gone were shillings, crowns, farthings, sixpences, and in came the various new coins that we are all familiar with today. So to celebrate this history occasion, we're going to take a stroll through the coffers of Folksy and see what loose change we can shake free :)
We start off with the humble sixpence, worth exactly 2.5p in new money.
And then there's the farthing, a much loved coin that gave its name to one of the earliest known bicycles.
The threepence was generally pronounced 'thruppence', but was also known as the 'thruppenny bit', which became a popular rhyming slang term.
The crown was equivalent to five shillings, or 25p in today's money.
The florin, or the two shilling bit, derives its name from the city of Florence in Italy.
The Royal Mint worked overtime to produce the replacement coins under the new system...
...and there was a massive publicity campaign to tell the public about the change in currency.
But despite all the publicity, it still took people a long time to adjust to the new coins...
...and some people had to go right back to basics.
But after a couple of years, people got used to the new coins and now it's hard to imagine life without them. So fingers crossed that we won't have to go through another currency change any time soon - Euro, anyone?!
