Decimal Day weights and measures.) Around the time of Decimalisation Day, "Decimal Adders" and other converters were available to help people convert between the old and new coins. The following is a table showing conversions between the decimal and pre-decimal systems. All pre-decimal coins (except for certain non-circulating coins such as crowns, sovereigns, and double florins which were explicitly excluded from demonetisation) are now no longer legal tender. Public outcry at the proposed demise of the old sixpence (6d), worth exactly p and originally slated for early withdrawal, postponed its withdrawal until June 1980. Shillings and florins, together with their same-sized 5p
Penny (British decimal coin) decimal currency, until 1984 the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin appeared on the obverse, in which the Queen wears the 'Girls of Great Britain and Ireland' Tiara. The words were inscribed above the portcullis up until 1981. From 1982 the inscription changed to . Between 1985 and 1997 the portrait by Raphael Maklouf was used, in which the Queen wears the George IV State Diadem. In 1992 the metal used in minting this coin was switched from bronze to copper-plated steel. Between 1998 and 2015 the portrait by Ian Rank-Broadley has been used, again featuring the tiara,