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Prior to 1971, the United Kingdom had been using the pounds, shillings, and pence currency system. Decimalisation was announced by Chancellor James Callaghan on 1 March 1966; one pound would be subdivided into 100 pence, instead of 240 pence as previously was the case. [8] This required new coins to be minted, to replace the pre-decimal ones.
The introduction of decimal currency caused a new casual usage to emerge, where any value in pence is spoken using the suffix pee: e.g. "twenty-three pee" or, in the early years, "two-and-a-half pee" rather than the previous "tuppence-ha'penny". Amounts over a pound are normally spoken thus: "five pounds forty".
Before Decimal Day in 1971, sterling used the Carolingian monetary system , under which the largest unit was a pound (£) divisible into 20 shillings (s), each of 12 pence (d). The pre-decimal penny was demonetised on 1 September 1971, just over six months after decimalisation, and replaced (in effect) by the decimal half new penny , with + 1 ...
Prior to decimalisation in 1971, there were 12 pence (written as 12d) in a shilling (written as 1s or 1/-) and 20 shillings in a pound, written as £1 (occasionally "L" was used instead of the pound sign, £). There were therefore 240 pence in a pound. For example, 2 pounds 14 shillings and 5 pence could have been written as £2 14s 5d or £2/14/5
Sterling (ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. [3] The pound ( sign: £ ) is the main unit of sterling, [ 4 ] [ c ] and the word pound is also used to refer to the British currency generally, [ 7 ] often qualified in international contexts as the British pound or the pound sterling .
The abbreviation originates from the Latin currency denominations librae, solidi, and denarii. [1] In the United Kingdom, these were referred to as pounds, shillings, and pence (pence being the plural of penny). Under this system, there were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings, or 240 pence, in a pound.
Unlike in some territories of the British Empire (such as Jamaica), in the UK the crown was never replaced as circulating currency by a five-shilling banknote. "Decimal" crowns were minted a few times after decimalisation of the British currency in 1971, initially with a nominal value of 25 (new) pence.
The British decimal ten pence coin (often shortened to 10p in writing and speech) is a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1 ⁄ 10 of a pound. Its obverse has featured the profile of Queen Elizabeth II since the coin's introduction in 1968, to replace the florin (two shilling) coin in preparation for decimalisation in 1971. [ 1 ]