The Humble Penny

The Humble Penny

Have you ever thought about the penny in your pocket, and if like me and 90% of the UK it never crosses your mind. It is not like it was years ago when there were two hundred and forty to the pound note. There were twenty twelve pence’s to the pound and now there are twenty five pence pieces. In that great changeover to metric that was all to do with robbing the people and putting the prices up. On that changeover the British pound lost over half of its value in the purse and trouser pocket, but it was so subtle that very few people noticed this silent robbery.  It was done to do away with the odd coins at the end of receipt because round figures look better on paper.

The Old Penny 240=£1

Pennies now are a worthless piece of junk used only for advertising and sales purposes. Before the conversion when a penny was worth something and when a price was dropped by five pence it meant something. The five pence then was admittedly worth less than the five pence now, but you could actually use it for spending. Five pence then would buy a great amount of sweets before school. Now a child would be lucky if they got half the amount for fifty pence, and remember that is half of a £1 now. You might say that is down to inflation, well it’s not it is being lulled into a false price racket.

The New Penny 100=£1

Years ago prices might have went up for small items like a bar of chocolate by a penny in twelve months. However that is not good enough for today’s cunning manufacturers. They now raise the price by five pence, and later that year they come out with a new design for their bars. Very few people notice that the bars are slightly smaller in size, and those that do just shrug their shoulder. That five pence price hike with the new design has just put ten pence a bar in the greedy manufacturers pocket.

The Old Three-penny piece with its

flat uneven edge,Half a sixpence and 

a good old stand bye if the sweet buying

sixpence was unavailable 

Today 50 New Pence with the same shape

and uneven sides will not buy the same

What a cunning ploy. This is where the manufacturers get greedier thinking that Joe public is a dumb cash cow because there was no outcry. Now they set in motion to make all their products the same size under the name of a universal size and up the price by five pence to cover production. It is not just in chocolate but almost every product bought in the super market.  I have not got down to counting the cornflakes yet, but I have noticed that the bag inside the box is getting smaller and so too is the box.

Six old Pence, A Child sweet money 1960

I went to a shop the other day and the item came to £1. 23, I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a £1 + 2x5p+3x2p+7x1p. I might add that it taxed my 68 year old brain to work that little amount while it was resting in the palm of my hand. Two things happened while stood there at the till. The first was a young girl behind me talking to her friend saying “Poor old man finding it hard with the pension,” which brought a smile to my face. The second thing was the girl on the till looking at the handful of change thinking she had to now count it, at the same time saying, “I don’t know whether I should except this?”

 I told her “I had to except those little copper coins from this shop, so get counting,” okay I might not have excepted them all at once, but you only reap what you sow in life. I had to save them for over a week to collect enough coins to be a negotiable amount and they had them returned all in one hit.

The New Two Pence.

What are their use? well we

need two of these and a penny to 

get back to our round figure of 5 p

It is because of little incidents like this why I nearly always use a plastic card, but these thieving shop keepers have even cashed in on that with a subtle ploy. If your groceries do not amount to £5 they have the nerve now to charge 35 p on top of your bill to cover the banking fee. I am not sure but I believe that comes under business expenses, and they can claim that back off their tax bill. So not only are these little up and coming Zionists cashing in on my income, but they are also cashing in on my taxes. I think that is double jeopardy.

The One Shilling that was

worth 12 pennies.

There was twenty of these to the £1

Now let’s get back to the humble penny that most of us regard as an annoying little coin not fit to be part of our monetary system. There are cars driving about the country with ashtrays that were once filled with dead cigarettes that are now filled to the brim with pennies. Most will never get used in the driver’s lifetime. He could have £2 worth there but he will still call in that garage and buy his 85 p drink with a whole £1 coin. Why? It is because of keeping up appearances because no one wants that girl I had behind me behind them.

The New Five Pence

Replacing the Shilling at twenty to the £1

Wow twelve pennies are now worth only 5. 

A sneaky move by the BOE to rob us of our change.

How many people drop a penny in the street and bend down to pick it up, well only a few. Even vagrants on the street pass them by as an insignificant amount for their next shot of whatever gives them their buzz. The vagrant figured it out a long time ago that he would have to bend and most probable be pushed over in the crowd 150 times before he had enough of those worthless coins to buy a cup of tea. He would then walk around with half a pound in weight of copper and mixed metal for a day to find a cafe that would accept him but not his form of payment.

The £50 note, how many pensioners have seen

one of these over the past year? Me neither.

You might ask “Why do we keep the penny if it is not worth the metal it is printed on.” Well if they got rid of the penny everyone would know what I am telling you. The penny is not welcome if you had a £1 worth, so in fact it is there to make you feel like you have something in your pocket or purse other than a small amount of scrap in mixed metals. In the days of 240 pennies to the £1, one hundred pounds in weight of copper pennies, was worth more in scrap metal value than its equivalent in money. Today, you would go a long way to find a bank that would receive One hundred pounds in weight of penny pieces. Even the banks know it is not worth the hassle of counting and transporting it back to the mint.

Gone are the days when the saying, “See a penny pick it up” or “Pick up a penny and save a pound.” Where do you cash that £1? Me? I will always pick up any coin, because if you think the penny is too small to pick up. Then one day you might just be complacent enough to pass a silver 5 p coin thinking that tiny coin was not worth the bother.

Be well Ian