Old Money

At the office the other day I was checking over an invoice from our advertising agency and noted the usual one per cent production charge. This particular job advert was not placed in the usual national newspapers but in the local 'rag' and therefore was a fraction of the usual cost, at just £33. The production charge was, therefore, £0.03. Displaying my grandfather status I remarked that once upon a time you could go to the corner shop and buy three penny chews for 'thruppence'

This drew looks of bemusement from my younger colleagues.

'Old money' I went on, 'pre-decimalisation'

'You what, Granddad?'

Most of my colleagues had never heard of 'old money' and the situation was compounded when a senior manager came in shortly afterwards and said 'Ah, yes, I remember LSD' The young 'uns immediately inferred I had been talking or perhaps had been dabbling during my lunch break in drugs before I struggled to put them straight. 'No, no, shillings, sixpences, ha'pennies - they were British currency before February 1971' The looks of bemusement changed to looks of pity and a shake of the head or two.

I was only nine years old in 1971 but I well remember the confusion and indeed trepidation among my mother and her ilk at the thought of the change in monetary system in this country. Shopkeepers - we had them in the early 1970s before the likes of Tesco began their world domination plan - had to change their tills, banks were on hand to explain the new system to the confused public and a quite unsettling period ensued. But, being British - well, Scottish - we soon got used to the idea although the demise of the ten bob note - fifty pence - was quite sad.

As is the increasing amount of pity being shown to me by my so called colleagues.