First transaction was lunch in the Students Union canteen at Uni. I vaguely remember that there was a short period of time when you could pay in LSD (not Lysergic acid diethylamide ) and get decimal change.
I was in school, I remember learning the conversion tables. The decimal coins were known as new pence at first and then became pence at some stage. Wish they had left the 5p coin at its original size though!
They were referred to as 'New Pees' quite a lot and lots of people spoke of 'One New Pence'. A dreadful inflationary way to convert, thanks to their insistence on retaining the pound at a time when most purchases were far less than that. It still puzzles me how those who insist that a base ten is necessary are able to tell the time.
I wasn't around yet, but my Dad had been Decimal trainer and had to go round explaining the new coinage to people and so had a quantity in advance of them being released to circulation, they were tightly controlled and he had to keep a close eye on them as people wanted were trying to pocket them as souvenirs
