Monday, February 15th 1971, was the day Britain's currency 'went Decimal'. A system that had existed since Anglo-Saxon times, and was based on a Pound (£) made up of 20 Shillings (s), each of which contained 12 Pence (d), was replaced with one where a Pound contained 100 Pence (p). The old system had some benefits: as it was based on 12, amounts were exactly divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6; whereas 10 is only divisible by 2 and 5. No longer could £1 be split equally three ways, whereas an 'Old Pound' could be divided by three to give six shillings, and eight pence (6/8d).

But the old system was cumbersome, it required amounts to be written in three columns, and calculations were difficult - an addition (for example) needed the total of the pennies column to be carried forward into the shillings column in units of 12; the total of the shillings column to be converted to pounds in units of 20.

Examples relating to the old system are:

      - the Bank's first published accounts (1920) were in £sd;

      - a form used by the Bank's Head Office to summarise branch data has three columns.

 

The change to a decimal system had been a prospect for over 100 years. In 1849 a florin coin (2/-) had been introduced, which was inscribed 'one tenth of a pound'. This step was the starting point of the government's intention to adopt a decimal currency, but the next step was not until 1966, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer (James Callaghan) announced that a system based on a Pound divided into 100 units was to be introduced. The Chancellor presented a Report to Parliament on December 12th 1966.

The Decimal Currency Act of 1967 paved the way for decimalisation, with an almost five-year preparatory period. The Decimal Currency Board oversaw the change, and introduced a massive publicity and educational campaign. The preparatory period was also used to mint over 2,000 million decimal coins - an enormous task that was undertaken by a new Royal Mint that was built in South Wales.

The first of the new decimal coins were the 5p and 10p, introduced in April 1967 - these corresponded exactly in size and value to the existing 1/- and 2/-, thus being interchangeable and they therefore circulated together. On October 14th 1969, the 50p coin was introduced - the equivalent of the existing 10/- note, which ceased to be legal tender on November 22nd 1970. Thus three of the six new coins to be used in the decimal system were made familiar to the public, by everyday usage, well in advance of D-Day: February 15th 1971.

The three remaining decimal coins (½p; 1p; 2p) were introduced on D-Day itself, but they too were made familiar to the public - by the sale of souvenir sets in 1968, in blue plastic wallets, containing all but the 50p of the new coins. The old halfpenny was demonetised on August 1st 1969, and the half-crown (2/6d) suffered a similar fate on January 1st 1970. (see Pre-decimal currency.)

In common with other financial institutions, the Bank issued 'conversion charts' to customers, and in preparation for D-Day, the Bank instituted training exercises for the staff. The major exercise of decimalisation, however, was the conversion of all the customers' account balances from £sd to £p, and the subsequent production of new ledger balances. The fact that the Pound unit was retained considerably simplified this exercise. To enable all banks etc to convert balances and replace its redundant coins, all financial institutions were closed from 3:30pm on Wednesday, February 10th until 10:00am on Monday, February 15th. These dates were chosen on the basis that the middle of February was the quietest time of the year for banks, shops, and transport operations. But the long lead-in time and the extensive publicity given to decimalisation resulted in a very smooth changeover, the whole operation subsequently being described as the non-event of the year.

 

Redundant coins, such as the old One Pence and Threepence ceased to be legal tender by August 31st 1971. The old Sixpenny coin (worth 2½ pence) continued in circulation until June 30th 1980. 1982 saw the introduction of the 20p coin, and a One Pound coin was introduced in 1983. One Pound notes were demonetised on March 11th 1988.

 

The Bank's decimalisation programme was overseen by Alban Clemons and Eric Bignell.

Eric recalls that the event proceeded extremely smoothly under the leadership of Alban. He also recalls no conversion charts were used by staff - all the changeover calculations were made by mental arithmetic, thus speeding up the process considerably. These two members of staff also contributed significantly to the decimalisation preparations for the savings banks movement as a whole - see below

 

The Bank's 1971 Annual Report merely stated that: The change to decimal currency on the 15th February was effected smoothly and every help was given to depositors in the change-over period.

 

 

In addition to the conversion of individual ledger accounts, it was necessary to make the corresponding conversion in individual passbooks. A special rubber stamp was used to mark the point of conversion - as in the attached example (right).

 

A repercussion of 'Going Decimal' that was unique to the Bank was the necessity to reprint its Savings Coupons.

 

The examples reproduced below shows the replacements for the One Shilling (1/-)  and Two Shilling (2/-) pre-decimal coupons.

A reprint was also required for the Cashier's Cash Book (page headings reproduced below from an example preserved by David Jackson) although use of  the Book soon became redundant due to computerisation.