DYB DYB DYB DOB DOB DOB…

DYB DYB DYB DOB DOB DOB…

Hi there!
Friday evening and all is well!
The TV prep is prepped,
the mojo is back,
the weekend is here.
SPOT ON!!!!
Friday’s blog a private peek?
Well, last night at stupid o’clock, 
we were eating sausage sandwiches with Paul Church,
because we can,
and were reminiscing about the good ol’ days,
when people used to give us kids a tanner in London.
“Tanner?” Paul looks quizzical. 
Dave and I were obviously showing our age !
The conversation immediately turned to the day we went metric,
D Day, Decimal Day, aka Got Done Day.
I remember it as if it were yesterday.
(Just looked it up: 15th February 1971).
Standing outside the newspaper shop on Watling Street,
11 years old,
with a Mars Bar in one hand and some strange looking coins in the other. 
I don’t remember what it cost exactly,
but I do remember as a little kid doing the conversion in my head and thinking,
“Blimey, my Mars Bar just about doubled in price!” 
Yeah, so when the Euro debate came along a while ago,
I remembered that Mars Bar moment, and voted NO!
Anyway, where was I ?
Ah yes, so the conversation ambled on as we chomped our way through our M&S sausages.
Not just any old sausages I’ll have you know!
Threepence came up.
Remember them?
I used to love those coins!
Paul had never seen one.
So I shot upstairs, dug around in my knicker drawer 
(I kid you not!)
and found the Coin Set my Dad gave me many years ago!
Check this out!
Ha’penny, tuppence, thrippence, a tanner, 2 bob, ‘alf a crown.
Like a language from another world.
Not forgotten though. Isn’t the mind an amazing store!
What could you get for a farthing today?
In fact all this lot together couldn’t buy a loaf of bread nowadays..
Mental.

Needless to say, Paul and Dave were suitably impressed,
and I felt I had had a real Dyb Dyb Dyb Dob Dob Dob moment.
But of all the coins in the land,
this was the prettiest by far….

 Have a great weekend,
and please join me at my second home
HOCHANDA
Sunday 10-11am
Sunday 2-3pm
Really looking forward to the shows.
Have got some delightful Christmas Stamps 
and some amazing dancers….
Love and Hugs,

91 thoughts on “DYB DYB DYB DOB DOB DOB…

  1. I remember decimalisation. I had to go with my mum around price-rights with a special converter gadget.. so she could tell how much she was paying LOL.. I was only 9 at the time LOL..

  2. Hahaha I had one of those sets. I don't remember what happened to it though.

    Do you remember when you could literally spend a penny to open the loo door? We wenot to Blackpool on the coach. Got off and went to the loo…when we came out Mum said that was the dearest pee I have ever had. As she let go of the penny she realised it was half a crown…no rock for us that day lol
    Have a great weekend looking forward to the shows xx

    1. I can hear my gran now – shocking! It was her favourite word where money was concerned! We used to do a strange system in John Lewis where as long as the door didn't shut all of us could 'spend a penny' with just one penny- those were the days. Cost me 20p the other day! Xxx

  3. Hahaha I had one of those sets. I don't remember what happened to it though.

    Do you remember when you could literally spend a penny to open the loo door? We wenot to Blackpool on the coach. Got off and went to the loo…when we came out Mum said that was the dearest pee I have ever had. As she let go of the penny she realised it was half a crown…no rock for us that day lol
    Have a great weekend looking forward to the shows xx

  4. See you Sunday Barb. Looking forward to it! Oh the stress of the old folk when we went decimal! My great was sure she was being given foreign coins, my dad changed all the new 10p coins for old 2 shilling coins for her! Bless her she never got to grips with it! Take care and enjoy Sunday, the work is done and you will shine just as bright as ever my love. Vanessa X

  5. Really looking forward to the shows on Sunday and I love the sets of coins. I still have the odd old coin about including the threpenny bit. Used to love scribbling over them with a sheet of paper and a pencil.

  6. What a happy coincidence! I'd just been looking at some hand-cut coin jewellery – http://www.louis-edwards.co.uk/page2.htm – and then came to your blog to find that you were featuring the same coins! They are very beautiful, aren't they.
    You have to admit, though, it was a complicated system – 4 farthings to a penny, 12 pennies to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound, and let's not forget that half a crown was 2 shillings six pence – how did shopkeepers ever manage to work out how much change to give, and no electronic tills to do the calculation!
    PS: My Mum says, don't forget the silver threepenny bit!

  7. Wide awake tonight! I dont remember the three penny coin but I do remember the half penny piece. I was shrude with my money even back then and worked out at a very young age that if I was given 10p to go to the sweet shop it was better to buy 12p sweets as you got more! I still have a 12p under the mat in my car, I think my Nan told me it was lucky? Looking forward to spending a penny or two on Sunday! Xx

    1. Hello Donna didn't get to craft today We ordered our shopping online so then I needed to sleep so here I am awake again xx
      Hi Brenda hope your feeling as well as in the past couple days hugs xxx
      Hi Diane have we got a new bruise colour for today xxx
      Hi Dorothy hugs xxx

    2. Cup of tea would be lovely please, just got in and I forgot to pick up milk whilst we were our so we've saved the tiny drop for the morning! I need to look up my green and yellow names today, it's getting quite interesting getting up in the morning and looking at my knees! I know it's not an ink pad but can I have squeezed lemonade for my colour today , it always makes me smile as it's such a lovely name. Hope you are all ok – enjoy your weekend xxxx

  8. Evening Barbara. I remember thrupney bits as we say up here. I preffered the tanner or sixpence. I seem to remember steamed pudding at Christmas with tanners hidden inside (sterilised of course) We were ever so careful of eating our pudding as we wanted to spend it not swallow it. Lol
    Looking forward to the shows. They will be a little pick me up…..I am a bit under the weather this week, hope it clears up before I go on holiday on Wednesday. Fabulous designs coming from the other girls…Fabulous stamps and stencils too. Must remember to put my order in. Hugs to you and Dave. Xx

    1. Thank you all so very much for your kind wishes. Full of chicken soup and lemsip. We fly out Wednesday, so hopefully I can breathe by then lol….I'd hate to be stuck next to me with all this sniffling going on. Hugs xxxx

  9. Oh Barbara I remember all those coins and I think I have a set somewhere. I even have the book we were all given to explain decimalization. The coins are lovely but I don't think I want to go back the maths is much easier now. Only the best sausages for you. Have a great weekend now all your prep is done. Hugs Jackie

  10. Gosh yes I remember going decimal. I was working on a till at the Co-Op so was in the thick of it. The threepenny bit brings back so many memories, my mum used to save them in a tin, weighed a ton. Half crown coins as well, my nan always slipped one in my hand when I was little and always said ' Don't tell your grandad '. Then grandad would quietly hand me one one and say 'Don't tell your nan '. Of course I kept very quiet, I was on a real good earner, not daft. Bless them, not sure they could afford it. Memories, so precious.
    Glad you all sorted for Sunday, will be watching. xx

  11. I remember being on a school cruise when decimalisation came in, we had to queue up and swap our old money for new.
    Loved the thrupney bits andbanners, in fact still got a few in my money box
    Looking forward to your shows on Sunday x

  12. Hi Barb, I was 11 years old as well. The sad thing is I still convert back. I remember my grandmother complaining that a loaf of bread cost half a crown, what would she say now?
    Have a good weekend, see you Sunday!

  13. threepenny bit was my favourite ! I remember losing a 50p shortly after D day – and my Mum being so upset as it was to buy a bag of potatoes and it was the only bit of money she had until my dad got home – I had tripped up the kerb on my way to the corner shop to get them – felt awful for so long. I also remember how many sweets you got for an old penny!!! ah those were the days!
    Have a real blast on Hochanda!
    Much love
    Kim

  14. I inherited my Grandfather's coin collection and have several of the coin sets they issued on decimalisation. He also saved his bank book from the period which starts in old money and ends up decimal. What is amazing is that this book is from an era when the book was filled in by hand by the bank teller and initialed. I was only 6/7 when decimalisation occurred and I have memories of helping people like my Great Grandmother work out the new money. I can also recall catching the bus to Blidworth Bottoms (yes really) and back again on my own to go to infant school and it cost threepence.

  15. I remember D-Day too. My brother and I very excitedly took our new shiny coins down the road to the village shop to buy some sweets before going to school but old Mrs Hayball refused to take the coins because she thought they were foreign currency! We were so disappointed but had to go off to school sweetless! We did get to spend them after school when young Mrs Hayball was on shop duty and knew what our coins were!! It's funny what you remember in life 🙂

  16. Barbara what beautiful set of coins I've still got a sixpence my dad kept wrapped in a little bit of paper with a date on he must have thought it would be worth something in the future he died in 1992 so might be now
    I was working at my first job in a supermarket when it change the poor elderly just didn't have a clue but we didn't too .
    Reading the memories on the blog is wonderful memories eh hugs to all xxx
    So looking forward to the weekend shows your weekend face is brilliant you make me smile

  17. I was working in a small Boots store at the time (Saturday job) and it was rather confusing for shoppers and staff alike. Looking forward to Sunday's shows.

  18. Boy that brings back memories – I was only little when the coins changed, so it didn't phase me as I had little concept of money really, but I remember constantly having to work out "what's that in old money" for my nans! Hope the shows go well, and I hope I've managed to get my other TV to record them to watch on my day off on Monday 🙂

  19. Loving reading all your stories. Can't add any myself though … dare i say it …. I was born before decimal coinage came in, but only by 4 years! I only remember the coins as playthings. I loved hunting through the old pennies for the different monarchs!

  20. Remember at school we opened a pretend shop to introduce all the mumns and dads to the new coins. I must have been about 12. Later on in life a member of my team had to ask me about some National Savings Certificates she thought were in foreign currency. They had originally cost 10 shillings (ten bob to my nan) likely memories,loive that you still have that collection .will be watching on Sunday. X

  21. Do you mean Watling Street near St Paul's Cathedral? I was working there in 1971 for Wiggins Teape. Maybe I passed you in the street! Will be recording your show as I am out for the day on Sunday.

  22. I remember D Day 1971, as my friend and I went shopping in Notting Hill on our way from school (we were in the 6th form) to her home on Portobello Rd and we got a Vesta Chow Mein to cook for lunch and she really couldn't get her head around splitting the cost and what coins were what.
    I loved the thrupenny bit and we always referred to it as a Joey but I don't know where the name came from but then tanners, bobs, quids and half a bar (10 shillings) were great nicknames that we just don't have for the coins nowadays.
    I still have a set of pre-decimal coins but my Churchill crown was separate……………

    Happy days.

    Jan

    1. More memories Jan , Vesta chow mein! It was my dad's treat meal if it was just him eating in the evening – some treat! I can remember watching mum fry the crispy noodles and watching them curl up in the pan – they were the best bit – dad used to let us have a couple each. Those were the days! Xxx

  23. Hi Barbara, I was only 4 so don't remember decimalisation, but I do remember the old coins. I liked the thrupney bit too. I've a wee collection of coins somewhere, my granny used to get us the new /special coins when they came out, and I think I've some old ones too. My granny, right up until the end, still put sixpennies in her Christmas pudding. I think she used to try to make sure my brother and I got a piece with one in :-). We had to hand them back of course, for next year, but it was lucky to get a sixpence in your pudding. When I started primary school I was given a two pence piece to buy my play piece and it bought my a poke ae crisps or a curly wurly, and they were much bigger in those days too. My brother was still in the nursery which was attached to my school, he didn't get a play piece so I used to get into trouble feeding him bits of mine through the fence!!! For some reason the nursery teachers complained to my mother! never did work out why!

    Sausage buttie mmmm. Now you've got me craving one, and I can't have :-(, allergies 🙁 Bread, rolls, blueberry muffins, cake, scones, shortbread, pudding, macaroni cheese, white pudding supper, yoghurts, desserts, ice cream….. Torture! Probably just as well I can't go to any shops eh!!!!

    I'll be watching and recording you on Sunday. I have been watching Hochanda a wee bit recently and what lovely presenters they all are, what an improvement on the other craft channels, it's a pleasure to listen to them. And it just proves there's no need for the hard sell and silly carry on, they still have sell outs on Hochanda.

    Hope you enjoy your weekend
    love Brenda xx

    1. Evening, I'm much too young to remember decimalisation so have only know new money. I think you need chocolate to counteract all the tourture of things you can't eat! Have you noticed the time? Who said I'm not a night owl 😉 XX

    2. Hi Brenda
      It's lovely to have you back on form. I was watching Hochanda today as I was ironing and had to stop and watch the cake decorating. It was a pleasure to watch without interruptions and the presenter (Alex ) was really interested in what they were doing – you could feel. How enthusiastic they were working together. It's really refreshing to watch xxxx

  24. Well, I missed decimalization by a few years! My mum kept a lot of sixpences for the Christmas pudding, she also donated one to a young woman she worked with who wanted one for her wedding shoe!

  25. i remember those coins too! and i'm maltese even! how young is Paul then? and my fave was the truppence too! we used to call it the nut as in nuts and bolts, have a great weekend. looking forward to shows, need to record. hugs xx

  26. Really looking forward to seeing the show & new products. The design teams sneaky peaks have really got me excited.
    My grandad used to call me thrup'ney bit and my brother & sister were 'apney and sixp'nce. My dad collected coins and we used to sit and play with all the different coins. Tubes and tubes of coins. Although, I don't ever remember spending them and I can't remember how old money worked but I agree that the coins were so much more beautiful. Wishing you all the best and lots of success with the shows. Hugs to you, Dave and Paul too, Jeanette xx

  27. I never had a Mars Bar moment, but clearly remember 'old' money and occasionally scare myself silly by comparing today's prices with childhood ones. I've heard that one of our current coins is being re-designed and will resemble the old 'threepenny bit'. Looking forward to Sunday's shows. Hochanda is getting better all the time!
    Tonbridge Sue

  28. I was nearly twenty when decimalisation came in and when we went shopping with the new money being so cross because when we converted it back we could tell that prices had increased over night, and I agree the threepenny bit was the nicest of the old coins with its lovely shape and feel. Looking forward to your shows on Sunday Barbara. x

  29. Thanks Barbara.
    For bringing back some great memories on D day I was on the checkout at the only wee supermarket in our town and remember having to give change in new money for old we had to spend time with our older customers who were so confused god love them that the queues were round the shop.
    Then in came one young man who was at that time the deputy manager of Burtons the tailors 2 doors up I will always remember him saying its hard on the auld ones isn't it.
    The next week he asked me out and yes the rest is history he was my late husband and the love of my life…….Thankyou…xx

    1. Thanks Barbara yes I could write a book about the happiness I have had with my love for that man and how you need to take time and make memories that last lifetime….take care god willing you have plenty to come….xx

    2. Donna aye you have got me laughing now ..Re first date well after getting my phone number from our warehouse guy at the time phoned our landlline and said Hi Dorothy would you like to go out sometime I really like you.. but little did he know my Mum had answered and her name was Dorothy too and said I think you want my daughter and passed the phone to me …..xx

    3. Dot that's lovely, so romantic. You were posh with a telephone weren't you! We had one because my dad had his own business and we had our own line instead of a shared one – dead posh we were! Lol, what lovely memories. Xxx

  30. Hi Barb,
    I was in lower VI when it was D day and you're right we were ripped off! My favourite coin was also the thrupenny bit. I used to really like doing addition of money in maths in the " olden days" – having to set out the sums in the correct columns. We have an open air museum up here called Beamish and it's set in I think 1911 or somewhere around there. They have a school in the pit village and honestly it is exactly like my junior school! I used to take my year 10 kids to the museum as part of one of their courses and I used to take them into the classroom, sit them at the desks and make them do proper cursive handwriting ( on slates) and then show them how to add up the money. They couldn't believe that we had to do this at school – not writing on slates ,we did have exercise books! Even funnier was when we went to the pit village cottages and there were outside toilets with newspaper cut up and threaded on string to use as toilet paper. They were so disgusted and convinced that this was just made up!! They don't know they are born!!!
    Anyway I digress. I'm really looking forward to the shows on Sunday and I'm sure they will be brilliant. Love Alison xxx

    1. Wow Alison – it's while since I was at Beamish – used to go there frequently before moving down South. I expect you know that the Co-op there was dismantled and then moved bit by bit to Beamish – originally from Annfield Plain. And I hate to say, I do remember my Grannie's outside toilet with the cut up newspaper! And the pot under the bed for during the night. Shuddering here but it was perfectly normal to them. And, they were happy days!

      Di x

  31. Do I ever remember D Day – can even recall the tune! Decimalisation, Decicimalise! A week previously, I started a Saturday job in a newsagents and in those days there was no ban on selling tobacco products to/by within an age limit -I was thirteen. In order to be 'slick' at my job and during a quiet spell on my first afternoon, I wrote down all the prices of all the cigarettes which were available in twenties, tens and even fives. Not only that but I memorised the position on the shelves along with the price. Yeah, great! The next week they were all in decimal coinage and in different places. And ….. I still have a Decimalisation tea towel which my gran sent me before I left these shores for Brunei to teach for SCEA in 1978. Guess she had no need of it by then, although she always had a stash of silver three penny bits for the birthday clootie dumpling! ;~}

  32. Hi Barbara
    Had a further thought to your blog: Mike was living in The Hague when the Euro took over from Guilders and having been out there on a visit prior to, then again after, I did notice there was a considerable uplift on consumables in a number of weeks, after which it all became the norm and accepted. ;~}

  33. Ah! real money, that brings back memories. I used to polish my Dads shoes for a thrupenny bit, I felt as rich as rockafella . That's when a Mars bar was a mars bar, Does anyone remember when a wagon wheel cost thrupence and was as big as a saucer. I still mentally convert to old money, if something costs 50p we think it's quite cheap, but when you think that's ten bob, you say HOW MUCH! Talk about inflation.
    I shall be glued to the telly this weekend Sue Wilson on Saturday and Barbara Gray on Sunday, what more could anyone ask for,
    Linda

  34. Mars bar need a magnifying glass to find it know was my mid favourite going to shop with half penny coming out with big mix up of sweets those were the days feel old know haha night all xxx

  35. Ah yes I remember it well ! I left School that year to work in a music shop…Decimalisation and those new fangled machines…Cassette recorders ! It was a con of course 1d became 1p . But we did have, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. aka. David Bowie…Brilliant. x

    1. Ah cassette recorders had to get one on tick for a 1st Xmas present for my boyfriend with a payment guarantee from my Dad ..happy days recorded the song Your so Vain on it as he was always dressed in a 3 piece suit for his job at Burtons….xx

  36. Hi Barbara What a great blog today, we all have fond memories, lots of grandparent ones too. I was 5 so only learnt new money at school but can remember being sent to the shops with my sister to get a block of ice cream to go with pudding ( no freezer), we took a special polystyrene case with us to keep it frozen and then it was wrapped in newspaper – we could buy sweets with the change! Those were the days. My grandad worked in the post office round the corner so got us these coin sets too and all the other sets that came out too – he had a thing about coins. He retired when he was about 75 – I can remember going into the post office and he and the postmaster were sat there smoking their pipes – you could hardly see the counter from the door! Oh happy memories. Thank you Barbara for the blast from the past. Good luck for your shows on Sunday – you will be fabulous!
    Much love Diane xxxx

  37. Hi Barbara, funny that you should be talking about £ s d as I was only saying on Thursday to our youngest daughter (who is 35) about the farthing.
    We were in a shop and the had Mo jos, fruit salads and black jacks in a box for Christmas, …..
    I sad that I use to be able to buy 4 of those for a farthing and I then went onto tell her all about our sterling money. Funny that but I agree the thripence is a lovely coin.
    See you Sunday Xx

    1. I think it was independent small shops that cheated customers over decimalization. I had a Saturday job in M&S and the conversion was accurate to within 1 old penny.
      I also know that the supermarket where I did our weekly shop had dual price stickers for ages and they were accurate because I double checked everything I bought.
      It wasn't rocket science 1s = 5p, 6d = 2.5p, but some places didn't play fair and those I avoided.

  38. Oh that brings back memories – strange to realise some people have no idea about the "thrupny" bit etc. Like you I used to love putting paper over them and scribbling! Also remember the silver sixpence in the Christmas pud! (still got some of those somewhere). I also have the coin sets as my husband collected those.

    I gave a talk about numismatics for my public speaking diploma at college (and that was was before decimalisation). Did you know coins had scoring in them so that they could be broken in half/quarters many moons ago. Yup I am full of useless information! Mags x

  39. i'm glad you went metric as that imperial stuff is way too complicated for anyone, seriously 1 5/8 of and inch or something…it's mind boggling to metric people, now just a few more countries to convert…I hate the Euro too but in the netherlands we didn't get to vote, they just tell you you voted for the parliament to make these decisions…pfff..

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