The only thing that I recall from pre-decimalisation is getting a thruppenny bit as pocket money every once in a while.
I have been watching "Look at Life" on Talking Pictures and lots of items in shops seemed to be priced just in shillings - e.g. a pair of shoes at 40' or 45'. (The film is from the very late 1950's or early 60's so I guess they are not pence or perhaps they were?)
Can some of the wiser forum members please educate me as to why these items were not priced up as £2 or £2, 5s?
Thanks.
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In 1960 I was 7 and the average wage was £14 per week - about 6 shillings an hour (about 30p).
My pocket money age 7 was 7d (in old pence = ~3p). I was able to buy a comic and a packet of sweets. When I was 8 it increased to 8d .... A loaf of bread was 1 shilling (5p).
Guineas (21 shillings) were still commonly used for billing in the professions (lawyers, accountants, architects etc) despite coinage going out of circulation ~150 years earlier.
Why things were priced in shillings - perhaps most people found it easier to differentiate the price of one product against another as the figures would be evidently different.
We possibly do similar today - eg: buying (say) clothing we may look at the first number on the price label - eg: a pair of shoes costing £30 or £40, or £50. We often do not differentiate on price between (say) £42 and £44.
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Are you really sure you want to do this?
During the war - that's World War 2, not the Crimean - I was given 6d to go to Saturday morning pictures in Whitton. There was a Ritz cinema - later the Odeon - at the bottom of the High Street. I went with my cousin for a while, but then he died when he was 8.
Later, when my brother was 14 and got a Saturday morning job, he gave me 6d a week as well. Later still, I inherited his Saturday job, quite good pay as a butcher's boy, 12s 6d to start, rising to 15s, and then 17s a week.
We have done all this previously, haven't we?
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>>We have done all this previously, haven't we?
Dunno, can't remember.
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>> >>We have done all this previously, haven't we?
Five bob says we haven't...
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Guineas (21 shillings) were still commonly used for billing in the professions (lawyers, accountants, architects etc) despite coinage going out of circulation ~150 years earlier.
Our next door neighbour in the last place is a farmer, he sold some sort of sheep for a hideous amount of money quite recently. This was priced in Guineas..see below;
"A ram lamb from his Rhaeadr flock at Tan-Yr-Accar, Llanrhaeadr , sold for £131,25 to lead the trade on a day the sale average jumped 26%.
His sale leader was Rhaeadr Best of the Best, a much fancied lamb by the 70,000gns Teiglum Young Gun and out of a 12,000gns Auldhouseburn-bred ewe by the 145,000gns Knap Vicious Sid.
After attracting significant pre-sale attention, Myfyr’s ram lamb became embroiled in a fierce bidding battle that quickly climbed past six figures.
The hammer eventually fell at 125,000gns to Hugh and Alan Blackwood of the Auldhouseburn flock, Murikirk, Ayrshire"
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Ha. No wonder a bit of lamb is so pricey...
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>>lots of items in shops seemed to be priced just in shillings - e.g. a pair of shoes at 40' or 45'.
You mean 40/- or 45/-? Shillings yes. So a couple of quid. Stuff like that is much cheaper now in real terms. For my summer job labouring job in 1968 at 15, I got £5 a week.
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£5 per week for labouring in 1968 seems a little low? Was that because you were being exploited as child labour?
As a summer job in a factory, effectively unskilled labouring, in 1964/5 IIRC I was paid £8 pw. And to put down another marker, graduate engineering starting salaries in 1969 were in the range of £1100-1200 pa. Inflation in the early 70s meant that salary seemed to increase significantly every month!
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...not sure I can educate you as to why, but the use of "shillings", rather than "pounds" or "pounds and shillings" was historically pretty widespread.
I distinctly remember this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Shilling_Tailors
...though mainly in its time as John Collier. (the original name "stuck" for many years after the change).
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>> the use of "shillings", rather than "pounds" or "pounds and shillings" was historically pretty widespread
Maybe it was for the same reason goods these days are priced at £9.99 £99.99 etc = to fool Joe Public?
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182’ a gallon round here for diesel last night.
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Pounds or shillings?
8o)
per Litre shirley?
8o)
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>> Pounds or shillings?
>>
>> 8o)
>>
>> per Litre shirley?
>>
>> 8o)
He's about right with shillings. 182/- =£9.10 per gallon, *0.22 = £2.00 per litre.
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>> >> the use of "shillings", rather than "pounds" or "pounds and shillings" was historically pretty widespread
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>> Maybe it was for the same reason goods these days are priced at £9.99 £99.99 etc = to fool Joe Public?
>>
IIRC it was also so that the till had to be used to extract the penny change and the customer stayed to get the change and watched the sale " rung up". All to avoid the till person pocketing the cash.
A lot less need today with card payments.
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>>the till had to be used to extract the penny change and the customer stayed to get the change and watched the sale " rung up". All to avoid the till person pocketing the cash
Yup, that makes sense I suppose. What I'm getting at is the fact that everything is priced at say £3.99 £99.99 £200,990 etc. etc.
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I had a part time job in a menswear shop in ~1970.
A not uncommon fraud on the part of some sales staff at sales time was to sell items priced at £xx.99, take the proffered £xx.00, walk out of sight towards the till, pocket the proffered, take the 1p change from a pocket, and give the customer their change.
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>> I had a part time job in a menswear shop in ~1970.
>>
>> A not uncommon fraud on the part of some sales staff at sales time was
>> to sell items priced at £xx.99, take the proffered £xx.00, walk out of sight towards
>> the till, pocket the proffered, take the 1p change from a pocket, and give the
>> customer their change.
So how does that profit the fiddler?
I once worked in a shop and tried the practice of putting the customer's note on the till keys, to remind me of what they'd given (£1, £5, £10, or£20) so I could give them the correct change. Accused of a fiddle!
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Sat 2 Jul 22 at 22:45
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I visited a gold chain manufacturer in Birmingham with a view to lending them money.
Taken to the board room by a PA. Waited for the MD and the first thing, before any introductions from him was an insistence on the right to search me and a threat of prosecution were I to steal from them!
I got up and left right away.
Last edited by: zippy on Sun 3 Jul 22 at 15:23
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Good Job you have never been positively vetted or worked in certain gov sites Zipsters.
I remember being searched by an armed US marine Gunnery Sargeant in his full dress blues once.
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>> Good Job you have never been positively vetted or worked in certain gov sites Zipsters.
>>
I have signed the Official Secrets Act 4 times.
I have been on business to Daws Hill, Chicksands, Lakenheath and Mildenhall.
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I think you'll find the act prohibits you from saying where you have been........
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I have signed the Official Secrets Act 4 times.
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>
I wonder if that particular bit of theatre actually achieves anything.
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Even the lowest grade of civil servants sign it don't they? It weighed on me as an 18 year old and from what little I remember it was rather draconian.
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>> Even the lowest grade of civil servants sign it don't they? It weighed on me
>> as an 18 year old and from what little I remember it was rather draconian.
My recollection is that what I signed was a statement that I understood the act's terms and their effect.
I don't think there were any additional restrictions placed on me by the act of signing.
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It doesent,
The Cambridge 5 didnt take any notice of it.
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>> I remember being searched by an armed US marine Gunnery Sargeant in his full dress
>> blues once.
Good - was it?
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His white gloves were quite soft.
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Isn't there something about taking you out, gagged and bound, in a rowing boat and pulling the bung, or have I got it wrong?
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>> ..WI, actually...
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Gitmo Branch?
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Pounds Shillings and Pence - Terry
