BRITAIN’S NEW DECIMAL COINS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 21

BRITAIN’S NEW DECIMAL COINS

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, December 6.

New British coins are expected to be announced by the Government in its White Paper on decimal currency next week.

According to reports, the new system—based on a £ of 100 cents—will be introduced in 1971, with the one-cent piece worth just under two-pence-halfpenny. The system is also expected to include a half-cent piece (1.2 d Among other new coins predicted are two cents, and 20 cents (4s). Shillings and florins are the only coins at present in use expected to have equivalents in the new currency. They would become respectively five-cent and 10-cent pieces. The Government, however, may also include a two-and-a-half-cent piece, equivalent to sixpence.

mittee on decimal currency agreed that a 10s system would be easier, but favoured the retention of the £ by a majority of 4 to 2 because of its traditional importance in international finance.

Half-crowns and threepenny bits are unlikely to have equivalent coins in the new system. The 10 shillings will become a 50-cent note. Designs for the new coins are now being prepared by artists at the request of the Royal Mint in anticipation of the White Paper. The five-cent coin is expected to be the size of a shilling, and the 10-cent piece the size of a florin. The 20cent piece will be larger than a half-crown.

It is expected that all the coins will bear the Sovereign’s head, as at present. Initially, the Government’s decision to keep the £ as the major unit was criticised. The Earl of Halsbury’s com-