Currency Act 1982 It is still in force unamended. Currency Act 1982 The Currency Act 1982 (c 3) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Following Decimal Day in 1971, when the British monetary system changed from pound/shilling/penny to the metric £1 = 100p system, the new currency was known as the "new pound" and therefore the "new pence". By 1982, the use of "new pence" was out of use, and replaced with "penny". The Act sanctions the use of "penny" rather than "new penny" in common usage, such as on coins produced by the Royal Mint. The Act covers
Currency mostly paper, but Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation developed the world's first polymer currency in the 1980s that went into circulation on the nation's bicentenary in 1988. Now used in some 22 countries (over 40 if counting commemorative issues), polymer currency dramatically improves the life span of banknotes and prevents counterfeiting. Currency use is based on the concept of lex monetae; that a sovereign state decides which currency it shall use. Currently, the International Organization for Standardization has introduced a three-letter system of codes (ISO 4217) to define currency (as opposed to simple names or currency signs), in