Decimal Currency Trials

[Figleaf]

Another thing I find remarkable is the number of denominations. The rule of thumb is to have 6 to 8 denominations is optimal. Not counting the farthing and crown, both no longer in circulation, the last decimal series counted 7 denomination: ½d, 1d, 3d, 6d, 1s, 2s, 2/6. Yet the proposals tend towards 6 denominations (especially if you ignore the impractical ¼p).

It looks like the real problem was the size of the 5p and 10p. Therefore, the obvious solution would have been a three-tier system: ½p, 1p 2p red, 5p, 10p white, 20p, 50p double thickness and yellow with a diameter sufficiently different to not be taken for a threepence. The colours would have signalled the two holdovers and the others could have been shrunk to their present sizes immediately, with an introduction of the 20p, the seventh coin, at once.

The public reaction to decimalisation at the time was rejection (unnecessary, unwarranted and un-English!), which is normal. People dislike change. However, the public soon got used to the decimal system. I don't remember any incidents of British tourists complaining in pre-decimal times about the decimal system of "continental" coinages, though they would refer to pound coins as "real money".  

In other words, the committee could have been a lot more "revolutionary" and that would have been a cost-saver. People would have complained anyway and gotten used to the new coins quickly anyway. Hey, they could even have left off the word "new" from the start.

Peter

[<k>]

It looks like the real problem was the size of the 5p and 10p. Therefore, the obvious solution would have been a three-tier system: ½p, 1p 2p red, 5p, 10p white, 20p, 50p double thickness and yellow with a diameter sufficiently different to not be taken for a threepence. The colours would have signalled the two holdovers and the others could have been shrunk to their present sizes immediately, with an introduction of the 20p, the seventh coin, at once.

No need for an extra tier. The 20 pence could have been made a mini 50 pence, as eventually happened. In an old post I did argue for a smaller 5 pence and 10 pence from the start of decimalisation.

Remember, though, that the 5 pence was made the same size as the shilling, and the 10 pence the same size as the florin, for a reason. This was to make the transition easier for both the public and for the banks and the mints. The shillings and florins were able to remain in circulation for many years, which also saved money.

The downside was that the Royal Mint and Treasury were left with a lot of problems at the end of the 1970s. They needed to get rid of the predecimal 6 pence (circulating as 2½ pence but very unpopular by then), the decimal half penny, and the large 5 pence and 10 pence, to free up size slots before they could add smaller 5 and 10 pence coins and also a 20 pence coin and a 1 pound coin. The pound coin had to be made unusually thick to distinguish it from the coins of a similar diameter. Members of the public who were blind complained that the 20 pence coin did not have such sharp edges as the satisfactory trial pieces that they had examined, with the result that they often mistook the 20 pence coin for a penny. The wide rim of the 20 pence coin did not help, because blind people typically feel the edge of a coin rather than the rim in order to help identify it, along with its size and its weight. That is according to what our blind forum member told me a couple of years ago.

Royal Mint documents show that the Royal Mint and the Treasury wanted a pound coin around the size of the old 10 pence coin (similar to the size of the current 2 pound coin) to reflect its high value. However, the Treasury had not given the Royal Mint a big enough budget to do that, and even if it had, the old 10 pence was still in existence, so that size slot was not available for the pound coin.

So you see that the large 5 pence and 10 pence caused problems, yet they also had some advantages. But I would have preferred smaller 5 and 10 pence coins from the start. For their worth at that time, they were still large coins and as large as many high value coins in continental Europe.

[Alan71]

It's a good thing the £1 coin wasn't issued in similar specs to the old 10p.  That would have limited the possibilities for the £2, unless they did an Australia (with their $1 and $2) and issued a smaller £2 than the £1.

[<k>]

It does make you wonder what they would then have come up with for a 2 pound coin.

Possibly a smallish polygonal bimetallic coin, similar to our current pound coin!

It just shows that numismatic history could have been rather different, if the Conservative government had allowed a larger budget for the pound coin. The round pound was not ideal, as it was too thick and heavy, especially when you got four in change from a five pound note. We had to wait far too long for the 2 pound coin.

[Deeman]

Royal Mint 50p trial c. 1967 by Hugh Graham Conway on a 'squircle' flan. Struck in cupro-nickel (Cu 79%, Ni 21%).

[Alan71]

Guernsey had issued a square or squircle commemorative 10 shillings coin dated 1966, which was said to be part of the 50p trials, but again I wonder how serious was the intention to issue a square coin?  It surfaced again in 1981 for a Jersey commemorative £1 coin.  On that occasion it was Guernsey's round nickel-brass version that, with a few modifications, won out.

A squircle coin was completely impractical as it wouldn't activate slot machines, surely?

[<k>]

Roundish squares would certainly not have worked in vending machines, because they don't roll.

[FosseWay]

On the other hand, how many vending machines in c.1970 sold goods that cost as much as 50p? And until decimalisation, this denomination was a note, which also can't be used in many vending machines.

The "usability in vending machines" issue is a real one (as, for example, the authorities of the DDR discovered when they found they had to mint the 20 Pfennig coin in brass for use in payphones, when all the other denominations were aluminium). But it only applies to denominations suitable for use in vending machines. This is why the UK has got away with 30 years of solid bronze 1p and 2p coins circulating alongside magnetic steel ones, because these coins are rarely accepted by vending machines at all.

[Alan71]

They were clearly thinking ahead when they decided on an equilateral curved heptagon shape for the 50p, with its constant diameter of 30mm (currently 27.3mm).  And they were right to think ahead as inflation soon brought down the 50p's spending power and meant it would be needed in vending machines.

The square shape evidently emerged again when they considered it for the £1, but I can't imagine it went far.

[<k>]

On the other hand, how many vending machines in c.1970 sold goods that cost as much as 50p?

True. I looked up the price of 20 cigarettes in 1970. Approximately 5 shillings and 6 pence.

The "usability in vending machines" issue is a real one but it only applies to denominations suitable for use in vending machines. This is why the UK has got away with 30 years of solid bronze 1p and 2p coins circulating alongside magnetic steel ones, because these coins are rarely accepted by vending machines at all.

As a child in the 1960s, I'm sure I used to put pennies and halfpennies in machines to get bubblegum and gob-stoppers, etc. Surely there has never been any problem with putting decimal pennies in vending machines?

[FosseWay]

I just can't remember anything other than stamps in the last 20-30 years that required coins smaller than 5p. Even chocolate bars in the 1990s tended to cost multiples of 5p in vending machines, even if they had more precise (and lower) prices in the shops. 

[SandyGuyUK]

The only thing I can remember using "coppers" for in terms of slots was back in the day when a public call box call cost 2p or 10p and the phone boxes only took those coins.  Obviously they'd long disappeared by the time copper plated currency had arrived on the scene.

[<k>]

So is FosseWay implying that before a plated penny could be used in a vending machine that accepted bronze pennies, the machine had to be adjusted?

[andyg]

So is FosseWay implying that before a plated penny could be used in a vending machine that accepted bronze pennies, the machine had to be adjusted?

Yes, they did need to be - hence the fuss when the 5p and 10p changed in 2011 ....(or had we forgotten they did? )

[<k>]

Hmm. Must be the magnetism that makes the difference.