Old, large sized fifty pence coins. Found five of them rattling about in an old plastic piggy bank. Nothing else in there but air, and since these haven't been legal tender since last millennium they're hardly worth keeping.

Middle one is the oldest, dating from the year they were introduced, 1969, in part of the decimalisation process when they replaced the old ten shilling (or ten 'bob') note. One of the other five from 1980 (not included above) still was stamped as "New Pence", whereas the 1985 coin on the left has replaced "New" with "Fifty". On the right is a specially issued version, 'to celebrate the UK's accession to the European Economic Community' in 1973, and has a circle of nine hands to symbolise the nine members of the Community, ‘clasping one another in a mutual gesture of trust, assistance and friendship’. Oh well.

I'm old enough to remember the decimalisation process, and the system before it. The change made things so much easier for this wee schoolboy, at that time. Not so for the older folk.

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