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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;sakata, post: 2769185, member: 23778&quot;]In 1971, in February I seem to recall, British switched from pound, shillings and pence, to a decimal system.&nbsp; Prior to that there were 20 shillings to a pound and 12 pence (pennies) to a shilling, so 240 pence to the pound.&nbsp; They switched to a new decimal system which has 100 pence to the pound.&nbsp; As the value of the pound did not change it is obvious that the new penny was worth 2.4 times the old penny.&nbsp; For that reason the new coins said &quot;new pence&quot;.&nbsp; After ten years, long after all the old coins were gone and everyone was used to the new ones, they dropped to word new and they just became pence again.</p><p><br /></p><p>I remember when it happened.&nbsp; I was in my first year in college.&nbsp; One day we went into the bar for a pint of beer and it was 1/4 (1 shilling and four pence)&nbsp; (1/10 for Guiness).&nbsp; The next day it was 7 pence.&nbsp; I seem to remember that they posted both prices for some time and I think you could pay in either for a while.&nbsp; 10 New pence (exactly 2 shillings) and 5 New pence (exactly one shilling) coins had been introduced earlier in 1968 to get people used to the idea.&nbsp; They were exact equivalents and the coins were the same size.</p><p><br /></p><p>So whether the coins says &quot;new pence&quot; or just &quot;pence&quot; does not really make a whole lot of difference to the value.&nbsp; Both were produced in the millions.&nbsp; Same with the early LSD pennies, which were much larger.&nbsp; I remember my mother keeping 3 pennies with her kitchen scales (balance scales back then) because they weighed one ounce and she has lost the one ounce weight.&nbsp; That was over 5 times the weight of the new penny.</p><p><br /></p><p>I also remember that in 1977, the year before I emigrated to the USA, I met a 16 year old who had no idea how to calculated in LSD.&nbsp; It was only 6 years after it happened.&nbsp; I can still do it to this day without any thought whatsoever.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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