Pre decimal money

[hobinfoot]

I used to collect three penny coins (threppny bits) in a jar until I'd got a fair amount then splurge for a few days. It was amazing how many sweets you could buy with a pound in the 60s.

[sharrovian]

I smoked Park Drive all those years ago but a memory I have of the old money was that you could have a good night out with a Ten bob note, ie a drink and then the cinema and possibly some fish and chips on the way home.

Just occurred to me, we always window shopped down the Moor on a Saturday night in those days because all the windows were lit-up and no security was required.

[delticfan]

I grew up in Dronfield in the 60s and 70s. One of the great Dronfield institutions of that era was a Mr George Vaughan, a greengrocer from Unstone who used to drive his van to parts of Dronfield twice a week and stop outside his regular customers' houses to sell his fruit and veg. My parents were just about the only "young" residents on our road. The vast majority were in their twilight years. Needless to say, they didn't quite "get" decimal currency. Our next-door-neighbour for instance. When Mr Vaughan told her the price of her purchases in decimal, she would invariable reply: "Eeh George, what's that in real money?"

 

We spent years at primary school learning how to do arithmetic with non-decimal currency, only for it to be abolished in 1971.

 

I don't know how much a pint cost then because I was too young, but I can remember a Mars bar costing 6 (old) pence in the mid-1960s. That is the equivalent of 2 1/2 new pence.

[TORONTONY]

'Three Castle's' too, when the mood took?

Park Drive, during the week, Gold Flake on weekends, were my poison in the early to mid sixties.

[hillsbro]

'Three Castle's' too, when the mood took?

Ah, now that was another decent smoke - must have cost at least three bob a packet...But look how differently the prices of beer and cigarettes have changed. The price of a pint in a pub in 1967 was about 1s10d. According to the Bank of England inflation calculator, prices have increased a little over 16 times since 1967. So 1s10d then would equal about £1.46 now. Needless to say, pubs charge more than that for a pint, but Wetherspoon's still charge under £2 for a pint of Ruddle's. Now look at cigarettes. 20 Park Drive cost about the same as a pint in 1967 - but thanks largely to taxation 20 basic fags would cost much more than £1.46 now. I'm glad I gave up smoking 40+ years ago!.

[wagginfinger]

the price of things generally relate to one another==but some get distorted with taxation trends

I try to think that if I get 4 pints for an hours work--thats as I remember my first pint==

other things (although I have only ever bought 3 ) a gents suit would be a weeks work

===a car would be 1/2 a years work------now buying a house there is another thing

[grinder]

The old half crown looks like a dinner plate now...

 

Q/ What would you do if you found half a crown

 

A/ Look for the other half.......

 

takes you back dun it...

Edited August 10, 2015 by grinder

[TORONTONY]

Ah, now that was another decent smoke - must have cost at least three bob a packet...But look how differently the prices of beer and cigarettes have changed. The price of a pint in a pub in 1967 was about 1s10d. According to the Bank of England inflation calculator, prices have increased a little over 16 times since 1967. So 1s10d then would equal about £1.46 now. Needless to say, pubs charge more than that for a pint, but Wetherspoon's still charge under £2 for a pint of Ruddle's. Now look at cigarettes. 20 Park Drive cost about the same as a pint in 1967 - but thanks largely to taxation 20 basic fags would cost much more than £1.46 now. I'm glad I gave up smoking 40+ years ago!.

10 Park Drive was the same price as a pint, when I started drinking around1962 i.e. 1/5d I thing they stayed at that( around the same price) level for a few more years. I know because I never bought 20 packs in those days, just 5's and 10's.

[grinder]

Yes I think most of us bought 10s back then, but if you remember they came out with the "Crush proof" packets" which they said they could only make in twenty's apparently and that along with the tipped cigarette definitely increased my intake per day..

Edited August 11, 2015 by grinder

[beechnut]

Inflation must have been low in the 1950s/60s. School dinners cost 9d when I started school in 1952, and 1 shilling when I left in 1965. The cost of posting a letter was 3d in 1957, and rose to 4d eight years later.