two and a half pence

[The Boy DP]

What year did the two and a half pence go out of circulation?

[kempie]

30th June 1980

http://www.royalmint.gov.uk/Corporate/BritishC oinage/Demonetisation.aspx

[MustafaTickl]

There was never a denomination of "two and a half pence" but there was a coin that was one-thirteenth of a shilling.

[BigMac]

Kempie's answer is clearly correct; I would just add as an aside that I have no memory of the old 'tanner' (6d) being used/accepted as a decimal 2.5p.

[Ethel]

Oh I can remember using the tanner right up until it was stopped in 1980.

A second class stamp was 2.5p in the early 70s.

[Erdinger]

Im intrigued Mustaf'. never heard of a 1/13th of a shilling coin, there were 12 pennies in a shilling, 1/12th being a penny.

[MustafaTickl]

There never was a denomination of "two and a half pence" so kempie's answer is not correct. The sixpence was never used as 2.5. The exact money for a tuppeny hapenny stamp was two pennies and one half penny.

[MustafaTickl]

I know, Erdinger, but there was a coin that was one-thirteenth of a shilling.

[MustafaTickl]

I've just remembered that the tuppence halfpenny stamp was in common use in the 1940's so somebody might come along and tell me that it could also be paid for in farthings as the farthing did not go out until about 1960. Before WWII a farthing used to buy me 5 toffees or one large toffee apple !!

[kempie]

6d (Sixpence) was re-denominated as 2.5p from
30th August 1971, and I can clearly remember when a packet of crisps was increased in price from 2p to 2.5p (around 1974) and I would purchase said packet with a tanner.

[Count_Emmup]

MustafaTickl
Thurs 17/01/08
17:17 There never was a denomination of "two and a half pence" so kempie's answer is not correct. The sixpence was never used as 2.5. The exact money for a tuppeny hapenny stamp was two pennies and one half penny.

Afraid you're wrong there MT - the old 6d. coin was exactly equal to 2�p and was used and accepted as such right up to the time of the withdrawal of the "Tanner" (6d.)! Just as Kempie says (above).

That coin in the link in the first posting looks very much like a "Farthing" to me; what indicates that it's a thirteenth of a shilling? I firmly believe no such coin ever existed.

[MustafaTickl]

I stand corrected on the use of the sixpence - I can only plead that II was living in Trinidad at the time that UK money went decimal which seems to have affected my memory !! There was a thirteenth of a shilling though and my link shows the head side of it.

[stewey]

I have a feeling, could be wrong, that the questioner is asking about the 2/6s coin, or half-crown, not a 2 and1/2 pence coin. The half-crown was demonetized on Dec. 31, 1969 according to kempies link.

[saxy_jag]

A farthing was half of a halfpenny (1/4d), hence 1/48 of a shilling (12d, as Erdinger says).

1/13 of a shilling, it would appear, was peculiar to Jersey until the nineteenth century:

http://jerseycoins.com/pen13/pen13_bz.htm

[kempie]

I believe the coin in MustafaTickl's link is that of a fractional denomination which existed for use in Jersey for the 25 years between 1841 and 1865...

http://jerseycoins.com/pen13/pen13.htm

[kempie]

Doh!

[Erdinger]

This is what i love about answerbank, a great amount of input to a relatively simple but obscure question, the aswers submitted are informative and fun to read. Brill.x

[MustafaTickl]

"Hi o'er the fence leaps Summy Jim
FORCE is the food that raises him" !!

[spudqueen]

I started work in a bank in 1978 and I can assure you that the old sixpence was accepted as 2 1/2 new pence until it went out of circulation. The banks would not accept odd half pences as a balance so you could either pay in 2 old sixpences (making 5p) or a sixpence plus a half pence coin (making 3 new pence).

[stewey]

This is one of those questions that looks so simple to answer: but, in reality it is not. Is the questioner referring to English coins, or Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, or perhaps the Colonies? Is he meaning a coin that was specifically minted as a two and half pence coin, or one that later became equivalent to that amount? When he says out of circulation does he mean no longer minted, or demonetized? Where did he go?

[Lonnie]

When decimilation came in, a few of the old coins were kept in circulation, end even though they still had their original worth on them, they were also knowb by their new deecimal worth.

A Sixpenny piece, (Tanner), was two and a half pence,
A One Shilling piece, ( Bob) was five pence.
A Two Shilling piece, (Florin or Two BoB) was ten pence

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that was about it, and they were phased out in time.