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With decimalisation, the pound kept its old value and name in each currency, but the shilling was abolished, and the pound was divided into 100 new pence (abbreviated to "p"). In the UK, the new coins initially featured the word “new”, but in due course this was dropped. Each new penny was worth 2.4 old pence ("d.") in each currency.
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".
The British decimal two pence coin (often shortened to 2p in writing and speech) is a denomination of sterling coinage equalling 2 ⁄ 100 of a pound. Since the coin's introduction on 15 February 1971, the year British currency was decimalised , its obverse has featured four profiles of Queen Elizabeth II . [ 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
In 1971, a new penny would have been worth 9.6 farthings (making a farthing slightly more than 0.1 new pence). Similarly, the old halfpenny and the half-crown were not converted [clarification needed] in the UK either, [citation needed] having been withdrawn in the run-up to decimalisation, although the half-crown was worth exactly 12 1/2 new ...
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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 worth 12 pence (d), the value of two pre-decimal sixpence coins. Following decimalisation, the old sixpence had a value of 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 new pence (£0.025).
The old pennies quickly went out of use after Decimal Day, 15 February 1971—there was no exact decimal equivalent of them, and the slogan "use your old pennies in sixpenny lots" explained that pennies and "threepenny bits" were only accepted in shops if their total value was six old pence (exactly 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 new pence). The old penny was ...