In the Old Money

I was looking for something at home this afternoon when I noticed a zipped bag with coins in it. It was stuff that came from my mother's house and it's been stuffed in a drawer since then (almost 25 years). For those of you outside the UK, we changed from pounds, shillings and pence (12 pence to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound) to a decimal currency in 1971 and all these coins are from the pre decimal years.

The small ones at the front are silver threepenny bits. They date from the1930s and these were traditionally put in the Christmas pudding. The coppers behind are two pennies and a halfpenny (tuppence ha'pny). The silver ones further back are a half crown (you always felt rich if granny gave you a half crown) a shilling and a sixpence. The one standing at the back is a threepenny (thrupenny) bit, a later version of the silver ones at the front. They were introduced in 1937. In those days we had a pound note, not a coin.

I've added an extra of the coins taken from above so you can see them in a bit more detail if you wish.