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In anticipation of the confusion that the transfer to decimal coinage on 15
February 1971 would cause, a Decimal Currency Board, the sponsor of this film,
was founded in March 1966 to plan and oversee the transition. The six new coins
described here were gradually phased in up to Decimal Day, or 'D'-day, in 1971,
and this film was released prior to the introduction of the first of the new
coins in April 1968: the five and ten new pence, exact equivalents to the old
shilling and florin coins respectively. One year later, the new 50 new pence
coin was introduced, replacing the ten-shilling note and the remaining decimal
coins - the one, two and halfpenny coins - were released on D-Day. A 20 new
pence coin was originally devised to replace the two shilling piece but was
subsequently rejected in favour of the 50 pence depicted here awaiting
completion of its design.
Comprising stop-action animation, Decimal Coinage: New Decimal Coinage was
deemed sufficiently successful to form the basis of Decimal Currency - The
System (1971), widely distributed in preparation for D-Day. Fillers such as
this example formed part of a wider public education campaign encompassing
literature, poster, seminars and newspaper advertising.
In the lead up to D-Day, the Guardian journalist Ken Myer praised the
filler for its role in ameliorating the complex conversion. In the same article,
he criticised the longer format public information film, in particular, Granny
Gets the Point (1971) for failing to get the message across "because for most of
the time there is too much emphasis on the difficulties." The fact that the
pithiness of the format precludes discursiveness facilitates this kind of
didactic State communication.
Myer concludes his article hoping that all public information films on this
subject "will find their way into the National Film Archive so that in 10 or 20
years time she can dig them out and marvel that we made such a fuss about it
all!" (By 'she' he is referring to celebrity cook Zena Skinner, who appears in
Quick Change (1970), a filler on the subject of decimalisation sponsored by the
supermarket chain, Sainsburys).
Katy McGahan
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Complete film (1:12)
