02-05-2016, 11:25 AM
When I was a kid, we had a quarterly account for electricity but a meter for gas, which took pennies and shillings.
When I got my first soldering iron - 1/6 in Woollies! - I used to heat it up on the small simmering ring on the cooker, whereupon Mum complained about the gas I was using. So I put a couple of pennies in the meter! This didn't suit Mum at all as she said that the dial never moved when you put pennies in!
Actually, unless you put at least three in, she was right - the dial jumped a bit and returned, more or less, to where it had been before!
Now it was very obvious, even to me, that this didn't make any difference - I'd seen the gas-man many times sitting on the stairs counting out the money, then working out the cost of the gas used and leaving the stack of unused coins on top of the bill! However, Mum would have none of this so, the next time the gas-man came, I made a point of grabbing the bill so that I could point out to Mum that the pennies had not only been counted but included in the refund calculations!
You always knew when the gas-man was due as shillings became increasingly difficult to find but, once he'd been, you couldn't move for the darned things!
As an aside to this, those of us who were around at the time will remember the outcry when it was announced in 1967 that the 6d coin or tanner was going to be withdrawn, along with the ten bob note, half crown and ha'penny, in preparation for decimalisation.
The tanner was said to be the most collectable coin in Britain - its small size (similar to the modern 5p) meant it fitted the neck of just about every bottle you could find) - and a jar full of tanners was a popular adornment to mantle-pieces the length and breadth of the country.
The government gave in and tanner collectors rejoiced - until the 15th February 1971, that is ...
My first decimal pint cost 13½p, for which I paid and got the correct change. I was watching the bar staff and they seemed to be handling the changeover smoothly and helping out any of the customers who were confused - quite easy as virtually no-one had seen the new money before D-day except for the small amounts that had been released to retailers for training purposes. Thus, after their first decimal purchase, virtually everybody ended up with two different types of money in their pockets and purses!
When I went to buy my second pint, I found I had a tanner in my pocket, along with a new penny from my change from the first pint and florin or 10p piece. The problem with the tanner is that its new value was now an odd amount - 2½p - so when I handed over my three coins - 10p + 2½p + 1p = 13½p - the barman turned away, got half way to the till and stopped dead in his tracks while his brain tried to compute what this odd collection of coins in his hand was!
I don't think I saw another tanner again until, about 5 years later, it was announced that it would be withdrawn and there would be no U-turn this time!
Suddenly, tanners started appearing everywhere as it was obvious that all the jars that had been languishing untouched for all that time were being emptied and spent before it was too late!
But, you never saw one on its own! Just about everywhere you went, if there was 5p in your change, you were virtually guaranteed to get two 2½p coins, as they now were, in your change!
Funnily enough, I was going through a box of odds'n'sods yesterday and, right at the bottom, I found two tanners!
One is Queen Elizabeth II from 1962 and the other is King George VI from 1950. Where they came from is anybodies guess ...
When I got my first soldering iron - 1/6 in Woollies! - I used to heat it up on the small simmering ring on the cooker, whereupon Mum complained about the gas I was using. So I put a couple of pennies in the meter! This didn't suit Mum at all as she said that the dial never moved when you put pennies in!
Actually, unless you put at least three in, she was right - the dial jumped a bit and returned, more or less, to where it had been before!
Now it was very obvious, even to me, that this didn't make any difference - I'd seen the gas-man many times sitting on the stairs counting out the money, then working out the cost of the gas used and leaving the stack of unused coins on top of the bill! However, Mum would have none of this so, the next time the gas-man came, I made a point of grabbing the bill so that I could point out to Mum that the pennies had not only been counted but included in the refund calculations!
You always knew when the gas-man was due as shillings became increasingly difficult to find but, once he'd been, you couldn't move for the darned things!
As an aside to this, those of us who were around at the time will remember the outcry when it was announced in 1967 that the 6d coin or tanner was going to be withdrawn, along with the ten bob note, half crown and ha'penny, in preparation for decimalisation.
The tanner was said to be the most collectable coin in Britain - its small size (similar to the modern 5p) meant it fitted the neck of just about every bottle you could find) - and a jar full of tanners was a popular adornment to mantle-pieces the length and breadth of the country.
The government gave in and tanner collectors rejoiced - until the 15th February 1971, that is ...
My first decimal pint cost 13½p, for which I paid and got the correct change. I was watching the bar staff and they seemed to be handling the changeover smoothly and helping out any of the customers who were confused - quite easy as virtually no-one had seen the new money before D-day except for the small amounts that had been released to retailers for training purposes. Thus, after their first decimal purchase, virtually everybody ended up with two different types of money in their pockets and purses!
When I went to buy my second pint, I found I had a tanner in my pocket, along with a new penny from my change from the first pint and florin or 10p piece. The problem with the tanner is that its new value was now an odd amount - 2½p - so when I handed over my three coins - 10p + 2½p + 1p = 13½p - the barman turned away, got half way to the till and stopped dead in his tracks while his brain tried to compute what this odd collection of coins in his hand was!
I don't think I saw another tanner again until, about 5 years later, it was announced that it would be withdrawn and there would be no U-turn this time!
Suddenly, tanners started appearing everywhere as it was obvious that all the jars that had been languishing untouched for all that time were being emptied and spent before it was too late!
But, you never saw one on its own! Just about everywhere you went, if there was 5p in your change, you were virtually guaranteed to get two 2½p coins, as they now were, in your change!
Funnily enough, I was going through a box of odds'n'sods yesterday and, right at the bottom, I found two tanners!
One is Queen Elizabeth II from 1962 and the other is King George VI from 1950. Where they came from is anybodies guess ...
