Pre-decimal coins: a guide to old British £sd money

Before Decimal Day on 15 February 1971, Britain counted in pounds, shillings and pence: 12 pence to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. Old "silver" coins dated before 1920 are sterling silver, those dated 1920 to 1946 are half silver, and from 1947 they contain none. Almost all of these coins are now demonetised.

By the Coin Scanner team · Updated 2026-10-13

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Pounds, shillings and pence

Old British money was written as £sd. There were 12 pennies in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound, which makes 240 pennies to the pound. The coins below the penny were the halfpenny and the farthing, a quarter of a penny. The decimal system replaced this with a pound of 100 new pence, and Decimal Day was set for Monday 15 February 1971. Some new coins arrived early: the 5p and 10p were issued to the public in April 1968, and the 50p replaced the ten-shilling note in October 1969.

The coins, what they were worth and when they went

The shilling and florin had the same size and weight as the new 5p and 10p, so they carried on being used as those coins until the smaller 5p (1990) and 10p (1992) arrived and the old sizes were withdrawn. The sixpence survived for years after decimalisation because of public affection for it. The half crown and halfpenny were withdrawn before Decimal Day. Pennies and threepences could still be spent after 15 February 1971, but they vanished from use within weeks, and the transitional period ended early, on 31 August 1971.

Crowns are the odd one out. The Royal Mint Museum explains that crowns struck before 1990, as far back as 1818, are still legal tender for 25p, while crowns issued from 1990 have a face value of £5. In practice, shops and banks do not have to accept them.

Which old coins are silver? Check the date

For centuries Britain's "silver" coins were made of sterling silver, 925 parts silver per thousand. After the First World War, metal prices rose so far that the silver in a coin was worth more than its face value, so from 1920 The Royal Mint cut the standard to 500 parts per thousand. Soon after the Second World War, silver was dropped altogether and replaced by cupro-nickel in 1947. The Royal Mint's description of the half crown follows the same path: sterling before the war, 50% silver from the 1920s and no silver by 1947.

1. Dated up to 1919: sixpences, shillings, florins, half crowns, crowns and small threepences are sterling (92.5%) silver.
2. Dated 1920 to 1946: the same denominations are 50% silver. The Royal Mint notes that people reported unusual colours on some of these debased coins.
3. Dated 1947 or later: cupro-nickel, with no silver.
4. Never silver: the twelve-sided nickel-brass threepence (from 1937), the bronze penny (from 1860) and the copper-based halfpenny and farthing. Silver pennies are still struck today, but only as Maundy money, not for circulation.

The date is the most reliable home check. For more ways to test a coin's metal, see our guide on how to tell if a coin is silver.

The twelve-sided threepence

The small silver threepence was criticised for being too easy to lose, so in 1937 a chunky twelve-sided nickel-brass threepence was introduced. It weighed almost five times as much as the silver coin, and by 1941 it had almost entirely replaced it. The Royal Mint Museum records bus conductors praising it as easy to recognise in the wartime blackout.

The 1933 penny

The most famous pre-decimal rarity is the 1933 penny. According to The Royal Mint Museum, banks held plenty of pennies that year, so none were struck for circulation. It was the custom to place sets of the year's coins under the foundation stones of new buildings, so three 1933 pennies were made for that purpose, plus a few record copies for the British Museum and The Royal Mint Museum. No record of the total was kept, and the museum thinks no more than six or seven exist. One foundation-stone set was stolen from a church near Leeds in 1970, and another was removed and sold. A 1933 penny turning up in a jar is therefore extraordinarily unlikely. Any coin claimed to be one should be examined by experts before anyone treats it as genuine.

How to check an old coin from a jar

1. Identify the denomination using the table above.
2. Read the date to work out whether it should contain silver.
3. Check the condition. Collectors care most about crisp, unworn detail, so a well-preserved coin draws far more interest than a worn one of the same date.
4. Leave it as it is. Don't polish or clean an old coin before an expert has seen it.
5. Get advice on anything unusual. Old coins are hard to value from online listings alone, so ask an expert about anything that looks scarce.

For a quick start, photograph both sides with Coin Scanner. It identifies the coin, reads the date and gives an estimated value range. Values are estimates only. For silver coins in fine condition or anything that looks scarce, a dealer or professional grading service can tell you more.

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