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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;sakata, post: 2799888, member: 23778&quot;]You are talking about two completely different systems here.&nbsp; The pound remained the same but the penny changed.&nbsp; Prior to 1971 (Feb 17th I seem to recall) there were 240 pennies to the pound and after that date there were 100 pence to the pound. Yes, that is right, pennies vs pence.&nbsp; I never remember people referring to the plural of the old penny as pence, it was always pennies.&nbsp; Probably because there was the intervening shilling.</p><p><br /></p><p>The old penny was much larger. I remember my mother using 3 of them to measure an ounce on her kitchen scales.&nbsp; The new penny, despite being worth 2.4 times the old, was much smaller.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I really don&#039;t think it had much to do with metal prices, <i>per se</i>.&nbsp; After all, by 1971 Britain was 25 years removed from silver coinage (which was already debased from sterling in 1920).&nbsp; It was just that the entire world was trying to make coins which had less and less intrinsic value because inflation was rampant and the less it cost to make them the more the government saved.&nbsp; On a similar theme, the US is one of the few countries which has not replaced their lowest denomination with zinc or aluminum and so loses money on those coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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