turning heads

Many minor things have changed for the first time in a lot of people’s lives, due to changing the soverign after 70 years.  His Majesty’s Government; King’s Counsel; His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs; ...  

And the coins will change.  The design of the new 50 pence has been released:

There has been a lot of discussion about the different direction the head is facing.  But that is not a change of a 70-year constancy for some of us.  On 15 February 1971 the UK “went decimal”, changing its coinage from pounds, shillings, and pence to the new decimal coinage.  (If you have ever wondered why people occasionaly say “what’s that in old money?” when asking for something in less confusing units or language, that’s because it was a very common phrase while people adjusted.)

Before 1971, there were coins from multiple reigns in circulation (and for a while after, since the old one shilling / new 5 pence and the old 2 shilling (florin) / new 10 pence coins coexisted for a while).  As children, we enjoyed finding the occassional very old coin.  Here are some pennies I found in my change in the 60s, and kept as souvenirs:

old pennies: Victoria, Edward VII, George V, George VI, Elizabeth II

So we knew the heads faced in different directions.

Coin designs didn’t change as much then, either:

only a subtle change in Britannia from 1907 to 1962

The main change was the amount of Latin, and the amount of its abbreviation, on the front.

So, the head has turned once more.

little fruit, big fruit

Supermarket grapes come in a surprising range of sizes.

The price of pears

I bought a bag of conference pears (lovely and crunchy) at Tesco last night, for £1. As I opened them today, I thought, "£1, that's quite cheap, how much is that per pear?" I counted them, and there were eight.

Without conscious decision, the calculation flashed through my head as follows: "Eight for a pound; that's half a crown each", then a slight pause before the next step: "so that's 12-and-a-half pence each."

Half a crown? What's that, I hear you youngsters say. Well, back in the dim and distant past, we didn't have this new-fangled dumbed-down decimal currency. We had proper pounds, shillings and pence. 12 pence to the shilling, 20 shillings to the pound; 12 times tables; the lot. How long in the past? Well, we went decimal on 15 February 1971. (I remember the excitement of getting shiny "new pence" in my change on the bus to school.) That's 40 years ago to the day.

40 years: oh dear, and I still think in old money! (Not all the time, I hasten to add. It's just that "eight half crowns to the pound" was so well drummed in that it's still the natural association. Then there's always 6/8d.) But, to the day: wow.

Never mind that. What about half a crown for a single pear! Outrageous! (OTOH, 12.5p is really cheap...)