In theory, are shilling & old pence coins still redeemable by the British government for current legal tender coins (since you can't spend them anymore)?
Not sure of the exact date, but there was a cutoff date announced at the time of the changeover, and it's long past. Neither the government nor the banks will accept £ / /- / d coinage or currency any more.
Also - abbreviations There another question I have that might be odd regarding abbreviations. 3d would be 3 pence. 4/- would be 4 shillings. 4/3 would be 4 shillings and 3 pence. How would you write an amount of money with pounds, shillings and pence? How would you write 5 pounds, 4 shillings and 3 pence? Also what was the abbreviation for a farthing when those were in use?
£5/4/3 The halfpenny would be 1/2 and the farthing 1/4 in subscript after any full penny amount. Also, after the cut off date old coinage was obsolete. The common coins only went up to half crowns (crowns being used much less in circulation). I believe that old British banknotes are still redeemable - whatever the age - but only at the Bank of England, which as far as I know only has one branch in Threadneedle Street in London.
Right, the Bank of England will still redeem older English pound notes. As for UK coins however, there is no such policy, it seems. See here: http://www.royalmint.com/home/frequentlyaskedquestions.aspx (scroll down to "How can I dispose of demonetised coin?") "Several months advance notice is provided before a coin is demonetised (i.e. it is no longer legal tender). This happened, for example, when the new, smaller 5p and 10p were introduced in 1990 and 1992 respectively and the old, larger versions of these coins were withdrawn from circulation. However, once a coin has been demonetised, banks are under no obligation to accept them. Nevertheless, many banks will accept demonetised coins from members of the public providing they have a bank account with them. Policy may vary from bank to bank, and some may charge a handling fee." Christian
The pre-decimal coins were demonitised as follows: 31 Dec 1960 ... ¼d 31 Dec 1969 ... ½d 2/6 (but proof sets containing coins dated 1970 were produced after this date!) 31 Aug 1971 ... 1d 3d 30 Jun 1980 ... 6d (was used as 2½p until this time) 31 Dec 1990 ... 1/- (along with 'large' 5p) 30 Jun 1993 ... 2/- (along with 'large' 10p) Yes, the BoE has just one branch, Threadneedle Street, and they'll take notes at face value (but they're probably worth more on the resale market). The format was £1 2/8½, £2 5/- and so on. 'd' stands for denarius/denarii (latin for 'penny'), and 'p' for penny/pence. The system was also often called LSD or £SD, standing for Librae (pound), solidus/ae (shilling), denarius/ii (pence).
The Royal Mint in Llantrisant will redeem old coins for their face value, much as the Bank of England does for old banknotes. The shop I work at also takes non-silver pre-decimal at their face value, and at 10x - 20x face for silver (subject to current silver spot prices)...
Oddly enough, the Royal Mint does not say so anywhere at its website. (Or rather I have not found such a statement anywhere, except what I quoted above.) The BoE however does explain that (and how) you can redeem such "old" money. Christian
Upon further research, it would seem that the Royal Mint prefers to do this via the banking system (probably to stop people demanding payment for their odds and ends). Seems a bit unfair considering a lot of banks charge a fee for people to redeem demonetised coins at their local branch, but there you go...
Guess I won't try and take my old/double 10p and 50p coins, total value roughly £1-2, to a bank in the UK then. Christian
