No. 640: The winners

Charles Seaton reports: The competition— originally timed for this report to appear just before D for Decimal Day—asked for mnemonic jingles to help us in the change-over to decimal currency. In the event the change has gone so well that I have hardly seen a three- penny piece or a penny since 15 February and even my local butcher (who wears a cloth cap and a striped apron when behind the counter) has ended a month-long rearguard action and now displays 'new pence' price tickets in his window. But most of us still mentally convert prices to isd, as we do when abroad, so some tips could be helpful.

About one in three of entrants bypassed the purpose of the competition and bewailed the lost fsd: W. F. N. Watson, for example (to the tune of '0 God our help in ages past'): Our fsd seems ages past Now decimals have come.

The change is made, the die is cast,' Yet still my mind is numb.

Time like an ever-rolling coin Bears ten-bob notes away; Instead, against our laden groin Great fifty-pence plates weigh.

A thousand pence, once four pounds odd, Ten quid! It gets my goat.

Half-crown and guinea—lchabod 1— Join noble, crown and groat. Alban Girral, on the other hand, tried to do his conversions, but got nowhere:

Old coins for new! (for. who?) For you. (Why, what should we do?) I thought you knew—

It's easy enough if you've got any sense— Forget about pounds and just think of the pence.

A quid's still a quid, and a shilling's the same, (Except that it's known by a different name), And sixpence is really worth two and a half— You have to admit that it's rather a !aught— A shilling is fivepence, a florin is ten, While threepence is—sorry, I'll start that again: A florin is tenpence, and threepence is—bother! It's really quite difficult, let's try another: A penny is twopence, or just a bit more, And threepence is,. . this is becoming a bore. It's worse than I thought, so I'm jacking this job in.

If you've got any questions, ask Christopher Robin!

Turning to the serious contenders for the prizes, I was faced with a problem. The best practical hint (to convert new pence to old shillings, double them, add one, and then call the answet shillings and pence) was submitted by only one competitor, but framed in com- pletely unmemorable verse. 'I cannot leave him without a prize, however, and so two pounds goes to Alfred Milner.

Quite a number versified a less sophisticated method of conversion—straight doubling or halving. Miss B. M. Bartholomew put it more clearly than most and wins three pounds:

... Here's how in a rough and ready sense You convert s. and d. to decimal pence: Knock out the stroke between s. and d. And halve the figure you then will see. (Thus 8/2 becomes 41p.)

To convert to s. d. do the opposite, folk— Double the pence, then insert the stroke. (32p equals 6/4. Oke?) For the -benefit of the advanced class Joyce Johnson points out that sonic new prices are better value than others, and also wins three pounds: (In converting 12d to 10p, ten amounts in twelve have perforce no equivalents. The pur- chaser gains on some and loses on others. The following jingle may help him to remember which d prices to avoid and which to choose.) When we pay the price in p For 3 or 4 or 5 old d, This is when we stand to profit.

The cost has also something off it If converted from 10 d Or 11';—but when we Go and buy what used to be 1 or 2 or 7 d.

Or even 8. or even 9, The loss, dear friends, is yours and mine.

Just to confuse the issue, did you know that bankers had their own conversion tables for turning your fsd balance (if any) into a decimal one. so that on the change-over 19s lid Would be credited to you as MOO? Mrs V. R. Ormerod does, and wins three pounds:

RANKER'S ORDERS

Forget the ha'pence. id will Be worth. alas, exactly nil.

But 2 or 3d if you've any Are worth precisely one new penny.

Thoutth 4 and 5 are now 2p 6. 7 and 8 are all worth 3.

For 9 and 10, please don't forget That 4 are all that you will get.

11; 12 and 13d Are now 5 np as you see.

Now for the rest repeat each item

On the same lines ad infinitum.

W. F. Owtram wins a final three pounds for a child's guide dedicated to that awful child on Today:

o shillingless Sebastian,

Fear nothing pcderastian If, deci-mated, I rejoice To hear your (penny-pound-wise) voice 'New money' expertise precise -

—To make my calculations NICE!

But let me in your ocean mingle My own drop of pre-emptive jingle: By 'decimal' is broadly meant, One penny (p) is one per cent

Of every pound. Bronze coins are three—

New lp, lp and 2p; While 5 and 10p (cupro-nickel)

Are 'silver' coins (the Mint is fickle!), And 50p—alone not round,

But seven-sided (half a pound).