British coinage

Obverse and reverse of general coins in current circulation, £2, £1, 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p and 1pThe British currency was decimalised on February 15, 1971. The basic unit of currency – the Pound was unaffected. Before decimalisation there were 240 (old) pennies in a pound, currently there are 100 new pence. The new coins were noticeable with the wording "New Penny" (singular) or "New Pence" (plural) to distinguish them from the old. The word New was dropped following ten years. The symbol p was also adopted to distinguish the new pennies from the old, which used the symbol d.

The earliest pound coin was introduced in 1983 to replace the Bank of England £1 banknote which was discontinued in 1984 (although the Scottish banks continued producing them for some time afterwards. The last of them, the Royal Bank of Scotland £1 note, remained in production until 2003). A circulating bimetallic £2 coin was also introduced in 1998 (first minted in, and dated, 1997) – there had before been commemorative £2 coins which did not normally circulate. The whole amount of coinage in circulation is roughly three and a quarter billion pounds, of which the £1 and £2 coins account for almost two billion pounds.