Think Decimal!

Princess Margaret doubted that she would ever understand the system. Nervous housewives stocked up on groceries to save themselves the anguish of trying to figure out how much change they should be getting. D (for Decimal) Day is at hand. Next week the British will join the rest of the world by switching to a decimal currency system. Even though they have had five years to prepare for the event, many of them are saying that the D stands for Derangement.

Even the British have long recognized that their currency system, which dates from the 8th century,* was ridiculously eccentric. Still, there seemed to be an almost atavistic aversion to what Randolph Churchill called "those damn dots."

In 1966, in a rare moment of enthusiasm for Europe and Britain's possible role in the Common Market, the Labor government decided to go decimal. Both the pound and the penny would be preserved. "It would be a matter of regret," said then Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan, "if such expressions as 'Pennywise, pound-foolish' and 'Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves' were to lose their meaning." But instead of 240 pennies, the pound would consist of 100 new pennies.

Foolish Elders. To prepare Britons for the changeover, involving three new silver coins and three bronze ones (see chart), the Decimal Currency Board launched a $3,000,000 educational campaign. Posters went on display in 950 cities and towns. Fifteen million copies of a decimal currency guide were sent to households throughout the country, including booklets in Welsh and Braille. Television spots urged: "Think decimal!" The BBC put a 13-year-old schoolboy named Sebastian on its breakfast program to explain to his foolish elders how simple decimalization is. Listeners loathed him.

Department stores, too, tried to soothe customers' fears. "Relax--D Day will be easy in Selfridges," proclaimed huge posters in every window. Harrods hired pretty girls in boaters and D Day sashes to counsel customers. Tea towels, mugs, pens and pencils, plastic shopping bags, watch straps and playing cards came out imprinted with conversion tables. To help matters considerably, an anonymous genius began spreading it around that if any sum expressed in shillings and old pennies were simply.,divided by two with the dividing stroke omitted, the result would be the new penny equivalent. Thus, 6/ 4d. became 32p. "I know it is not absolutely accurate," sighed a housewife, "but I feel I'm mastering the system at last."

The most difficult part of the changeover will come when the banks close in the middle of this week. A fleet of airplanes, 145 armored trucks and ten trunk railway lines--Britain's biggest convoy since World War II--will bring 6,000,000 checks, statements and credit documents from 14,500 banks throughout the country to London. There they will be converted into the new currency and shipped back to their place of origin. When the banks reopen next Monday, some 25 million accounts will be decimalized and up to date. Government departments, the stock exchange and subway system, as well as most big stores, will go decimal immediately on D Day. Other businesses have 18 months to convert.

What will bother Britons at least as much as figuring out how much things cost is that when they finally do, they will discover that prices have been upped. Public lavatories, for example, will cost 1 p. (2.4-c-) instead of 1d. (1-c-) after Feb. 15. Coffee machines will cost 50% more, launderettes 30% more. And while many shops were rounding prices up to the nearest new penny--and beyond--the Ministry of Defense admitted that war veterans' pensions have been "rounded down" to the nearest new penny. While businesses figured out how best to pay for their changeover expenses, the government estimated that the total cost of decimalization, including the training of staff, replacement and conversion of machinery, would be about $300 million.

If confusion seems certain for a while, some Britons took comfort last week in the fact that they still have some peculiarities left. Even while saying goodbye to quids and bobs and thrup'ny bits and all that, they still have chains, rods, gills, pecks and chaldrons. M (for Metric) Day will not come before 1975.

* First mention of the penny, the oldest English coin, occurred in the laws of the West Saxon King Ine, who ruled between 688 and 726. The first pennies were struck in silver about 770, and some time after that it was discovered that 240 coins could be minted from a pound of silver. The shilling came along in 1504, its name a derivation of the Old English word settling, meaning cutting or slicing.

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