RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30778, 16 June 1965, Page 32

RANDOM REMINDER

OLD AND NEW It’s not only the duo-decimal-minded who are worried about the prospect of decimal currency. Doctors and lawyers, we hear, are quite down in the mouth about the imminent disappearance of the guinea and those busy little boy scouts will be quite at sea without their cutely-named Bob-a-Job campaign. And we can see all sorts of other problems too. Our currency has passed into the fabric of the language and it won’t be winkled out and replaced too easily when that currency is replaced. It’s a year or two now since we had our hot little hands on a farthing, but th* nam* live* on. People

still don’t give a farthing for their chances, not even a brass farthing, in spite of the depreciation in the value of the currency. Noone is likely to take the trouble of spoiling a ship for a ha’cent of tar and on November 5 the chanting boys won’t bless us for a ha’cent either. Pennies, of course, will just have to stay. We could never bring ourselves to say that anyone was cent wise and two dollar foolish and hold up our heads again in public. Nor would anyone ever really boast that his house or his car cost him a pretty cent. Would you read a cent-dreadful written by a cent-a-liner, or play a cent trumpet or a cent whistle? Of course

not. Nor would any selfrespecting artist try to starve, centiless, in a garret. A two-cent damn would not be nearly as expressive, or impressive, as the twopenny type; and no-one could take much offence at being called a cheap two poi»“ five cent upstart. Three ents may replace the t v threepence, but the boxing writers are going to be stumped. How could they say that old Cassius landed a four-cent one without seeming faintly ridiculous. And if there’s anything brighter than a shiny new sixpence, it won’t be a decimal coin. We’re ready to bet a boh that £ s. d. remains with us long after D-day in 1957.