by WLB123 » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:20 am
You all are making me feel old. Maybe that's because I am. LOL
Anyway, I first came to Scotland in '71 just after the money changed to decimal. I was in the U.S. Navy and stationed at Holy Loch. There was great confusion in the shops for a while about the money. They had charts and pictures and all that. We Americans on the other hand were used to it as the dollar had always been 100 pennies to the dollar etc. I can truthfully say we all helped in the transition around Dunoon, Greenock and Gouroch in the shops. Many times I saw sailors in a news agent or tobacco shop etc helping out. The only thing we never understood was there was no 25 pence coin at that time that would equate to our quarter dollar so you ended up with a LOT of 10 pence coins in your pocket and they seemed huge to our 10 cent coin called a dime. We always joked that you had to devide your change up or the weight of all the 10 pence coins on one side would make you walk with a list to that side.