Decimal Day Board. Consideration was given to introducing a new major unit of currency worth ten shillings in the old currency: suggested names included the "new pound", the "royal" and the "noble". This would have resulted in the "decimal penny" being worth only slightly more than the old penny (this approach was adopted, for example, when South Africa, Australia and New Zealand decimalised in the 1960s, adopting respectively the South African rand, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar equal in value to 10 shillings). But Halsbury decided, in view of the pound sterling's importance as a reserve currency, that the pound should
Decimal Day Decimal Day On 15 February 1971, known as Decimal Day, the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies. Under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence (denoted by the letter "d" for Latin "denarius" and now referred to as "old pence"), with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings (denoted by "s" for Latin "solidus") in a pound. The loss of value of the currency meant that the "old" penny, with the same diameter as the US half-dollar, had become of relatively low value. The Coinage Act of 1792 had