No more Britannia on the 50p...

[tree_and_leaf]

A shame. But not as big a shame as the loss of the wren and the ship from the pre-decimal currency (and I still rather regret the new 10 and 5 pence pieces; as a child I was fascinated by the shilling and two shilling coins that sometimes turned up functioning as fives and tens, particularly the dead kings and the geometric design on the two-bob piece).

Perhaps I should be reassured that unpleasant idiots hang about on the Telegraph blog boards as well as on the Grauniad's, but really, there are some nasty comments on there. Particularly the crack about 'a nazi swastika to please Frau Merkel' which is just racist idiocy. I don't like the woman, but there are limits - and anyway, if you want to be nasty about her political past, then the reference is to a hammer and sickle...

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I can remember when the sixpence was still in circulation, handy for all those prices in half-pences. Do you remember the distinct English and Scottish variants of the shilling? There were also the disappearing 'IND:IMP' from the coins in 1948 and 'BRITT:OMN' from 1954...(I think it was the two shilling piece you are thinking of, rather than the half crown.)

[tree_and_leaf]

Of course - you're quite right. I don't remember the Scottish-English variation of the shillings, but I'm sure I remember reading IND: IMP on coins, though they may have been on ones that had been 'saved', rather than what I had in my pocket money (or collection for church, which tended to get a more thorough examination due to boredom....)