Obverse of 1971 Half New Penny

British Decimal Half New Penny
In 1971 the United Kingdom finally converted to decimal currency on February 15th, having made a shaky start in 1848 / 1849 with the issue of florins which were one tenth of a pound. Pre-dating the 1971 conversion date, fivepences and tenpences had been issued since 1968 as these were direct replacements for the shilling and florin and of identical diameters and specifications. These two old denominations continued in circulation for many years after decimalisation, until both denominations were downsized. The fifty pence was issued in 1969 and circulated alongside the ten shilling note. The remaining demial coin denominations which had no exact equivalent in the old £.s.d. system were only issued in 1971. They were the twopence, penny and halfpenny. Until 1982, all decimal coins showed their value as "...new pence" to distinguish them from old pence. Sadly this lead to "pence" in speech being abbreviated to an inelegant "pea", or perhaps the even less elegant "pee", and this still persists now. It seems strange that a decimal currency should include a half penny or cent, but it was presumably easier, perhaps politically, to keep the pound intact, otherwise we would have needed to have "new pounds" or possibly dollars. The halfpenny was politically necessary to counter criticism that decimalisation would increase prices, and even then, the new halfpenny was worth 2.4 times the value of the old halfpenny. In the actual event, prices did rise after decimalisation, and although this may have simply been inflation, many people at the time, and even now, blame decimalisation for increased prices. A similar argument is being aired now because it is argued that joining the euro will also similarly cause price rises. In 1982, all new decimal coins dropped the word "new" from their stated values, and the halfpenny sirvived this change. Because of inflation, the value of the halfpenny had fallen sufficiently by 1985 for it to be discontinued, and its last date of production was 1984. British halfpennies had been in production for almost 1100 years. Quite a long history for such a small coin.

Reverse of 1971 Half New Penny