Decimal Day

My daughter is hoping to go to Oxford University next year so she's gone off with Mrs L to an open day leaving the spaniel and I to our own devices.

The spaniel is in the dog house. After our morning walk (saw my first primroses in flower) I got out a block of butter to soften for cake making purposes this afternoon. The butter has disappeared. All I can find is the empty wrapper by the back door. The spaniel looks guilty and slightly queasy.

Forty years ago, on 15 February 1971, we lost something else - our currency. I missed this historic event as we were living on a British Army base somewhere exotic at the time. Besides, having barely - so far as I could remember - visited Britain, I had no connection to the old currency other than the occasional five shilling postal order that arrived at birthdays and was promptly whisked away by my mother to be entered into a Post Office Savings Account at the BFPO.

Like the higher value coins, some high denomination stamps (10p, 20p, and 50p) had been issued before Decimal Day (in June 1970). The Christmas stamps of November 1970 were the last to denote a value in 'solidus' and 'denarius'. Decimalisation saw a whole new set of stamps issued rising in ½p steps to 12 ½ and then in 1p steps to 20p.