History of the threepence the possible advent of a decimal currency at the time (see florin), when the 3d at 1/80th of a pound would not have fitted within a decimal system). Currency silver threepences from 1838 to 1926 were of identical design and cannot usually be distinguished except in the best conditions when the higher striking standard of the maundy coins stand out; this resulted in the curious legal anomaly that when the currency was decimalised in 1971 "all" silver threepences from 1870 onwards were revalued at three new pence, not just the maundy coins. Threepences were produced with both the "young head"
Coins of the pound sterling (97%), the intrinsic value of pre-1992 1p and 2p coins increased with the surge in metal prices of the mid-2000s, until by 2006 the coins, would, if melted down, have been worth about 50% more than their face value. (To do this, however, would be illegal, and they would have had to be melted in huge quantities to achieve significant gain.) In subsequent years the price of copper fell considerably from these peaks. The following are commemorative issues and are seldom encountered in normal circulation due to their precious metal content. The following decimal coins have been withdrawn from circulation