On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:33:01 +0100, "R.C. Payne"
wrote:

MIG wrote:
sweller wrote:

Peter Masson wrote:

Weren't the coins enormous? The two shillings is the same diameter as
the current #2 coin, while both the penny and the half-crown are larger.
I found a tin with a load of old coins in - by old, I mean post 1971 -
and I was surprised at the size of the 50p and 10p. No wonder I always
had holes in my trouser pockets.

In a way it's a shame that the 5p shrank in 1990 and 10p in 1992
(can't remember when the 50p shrank). Before that you used to get
loads of funny old coins still in circulation after a very long time.

I understood that the reason why 5p and 10p were made exactly the same
size and weight as 1s and 2s was because so many people had slot
meters that would have had to be replaced. Decimalisation was in 1971,
but 5p and 10p were minted from 1968 and 50p from 1969 (hence the 1970
2s being odd) and 1s and 2s stayed in circulation as 5p and 10p of
course.

But given that 1/- is exactly one twentieth of a pound, and 2/- is
exactly a tenth, it makes sense that the replacement coin for the same
value, ie 5p and 10p be essentially the same coin, and by extention,
that the old coins remain in circulation. I certainly enjoyed getting
change with a king's rather than queen's head on it. I never happened
upon any older than about 1950, but still...

By the time decimalisation arrived much of the "silver" which really
was silver (50% to 1946, sterling silver to 1919) had disappeared into
back-street smelters due to the metal value exceeding the face value
of the coins. The same happened later to some extent with pennies and
halfpennies and later with decimal bronze coins (which are now plated
steel).

I did once find a 1938 2s in my change, but I think that the reason
why you hardly ever saw any dated before 1947 was that that was the
first year when there wasn't any silver content.