D-Day Not V-Day

On Monday, 15 February 1971 at 10 am both the UK and Ireland switched to decimal currency. This meant that everyone had to get used to new currency based on 100 pennies to the pound – quite a change from the old system of pounds, shillings and pence. Preparations had been made since 1967, and there were leaflets, posters, even games aplenty to keep everyone informed. Here is one such leaflet – it certainly is of its time in terms of general attitude, but it has a couple of nice images, starting with the cover:

Proper 70s colours!

The tone is light-hearted – as it’s the 70s, even the new system is ‘swinging’..

This illustration shows that M&S have hardly changed the lay-outs of their shops….not sure if that’s a good thing.

black and white drawing of inside of a Marks & Spencer shop - jumpers at £5.25 at front

And here’s some great 70s fashion – most of these would still go down well today.

black and white drawings of 5 items of clothing on people: female trouser-suit, male cardigan, girl poncho, female undergown, female top

Sadly, the 70s were not enlightened – note that all sales assistants are ‘girls’?

The below is purely for ‘continuity’ –

image of pink hearts and text saying I wish you a very happy Valentine's Day

I hope you have better plans for today but if you really want to know more: The Royal Mint Museum has some interesting activities and photos.

4 Comments

  1. A lovely post ! Sorry I missed it at the time ….

    Ashamed to say I never had a poncho, even though I was definitely poncho-wearing age at the time (or shortly after anyway)

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