Not small change - a photo on Flickriver

Not small change

The United Kingdom switched to decimal currency on 15 February1971. It's easy to forget now, especially in this era of contactless payments, just how big a deal this was at the time. Most people paid for most things by cash, and most people received their wages in a little brown envelope containing notes and coins.

February was chosen as it was regarded as the quietest time of the year for shops and banks, but even so the upheaval was immense with tills, bank systems and prices all having to be changed at once.

Well, almost at once - most bus companies made their changeover a few days later, on the 21st. We don't know for sure why this was the case, but certainly buses are quieter at weekends and teething problems on a Sunday would be much fewer than on a weekday morning.

SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive was a major cash handler - no apps, no season tickets - just piles and piles of coins paid for fares every day. Ticket machines had to be changed, fare tables reprinted, staff trained - it was a huge operation and thousands of staff attended a course to become familiar with the new currency before D (for Decimalisation) Day.

Publicity was part of the drive, and posters such as these were often accompanied by quick conversion tables showing that, for example, a 6d fare would become 2½p. This was easy, as it was an exact equivalent; but an 8d fare didn't have an exact equivalent in decimal terms (it was 3.333p) so examples like these tended to be rounded up, in this case to 3½p. This led to passenger complaints but there wasn't really much SELNEC could do as the financial position certainly didn't allow fares to be rounded down.

Perhaps cash will disappear one day, but the Museum Greater Manchester has a fascinating display on the history of fare collection equipment, much of it bequeathed by the late Bob Wingrove, and it's often consulted by people studying the history of cash and cash collection. If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport and its collections, go to motgm.uk.

© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.

Taken in: UK / England / West Gorton (show map)

Taken on: February 21, 1971

Tags:

Museum

Transport

Manchester

www.gmts.co.uk

GMTS

bus

buses

Museum of Transport

GMTS collection

Greater Manchester Transport Society

Boyle Street

Cheetham Hill

M8 8UW

Greater Manchester

heritage

history

MoTGM

SELNEC

PTE

Passenger Transport Executive

decimal

decimalisation

currency

cash

money

poster

coin

coins « less

Sets appears in: • Selnec/GMT/GM Buses • Publicity

Groups appears in: • Bus UK: British Passenger Transport Executives • Seventies Transport Time Machine

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