Decimal Day remain unchanged. Under the new system, the pound was retained but was divided into 100 new pence, denoted by the symbol "p". New coinage was issued alongside the old coins. The 5p and 10p coins were introduced in April 1968 and were the same size, composition, and value as the shilling and two shillings coins in circulation with them. In October 1969 the 50p coin was introduced, with the 10s note withdrawn on 20 November 1970. This reduced the number of new coins that had to be introduced on Decimal Day and meant that the public was already familiar with
Decimal fractions. The Egyptian hieratic numerals, the Greek alphabet numerals, the Hebrew alphabet numerals, the Roman numerals, the Chinese numerals and early Indian Brahmi numerals are all non-positional decimal systems, and required large numbers of symbols. For instance, Egyptian numerals used different symbols for 10, 20, to 90, 100, 200, to 900, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, to 10,000. The world's earliest positional decimal system was the Chinese rod calculus. Decimal fractions were first developed and used by the Chinese in the end of 4th century BC, and then spread to the Middle East and from there to Europe. The written Chinese