Modern Pounds

The current pounds started in 1971 Feb 15 on Decimalization day, when the UK and Ireland changed from LSD (Pound, shilling, penny) system to a decimal system. It used to be that a pound was world 20 shillings or 240 pence, meaning that a shilling equaled 12 pence. You said "parents," right? So I'll assume you're quite young and connect this to the wizarding money in Harry Potter where they had a galleon, sickle and a knut. That system, according to Rowling, was based on the old LSD system.

So, during changeover, 1 shilling was 5 new pence (1/20 of a pound.) The sizes carried over, so the size of a 5p was the same as a shilling, a 10p a florin and so on.

Also, the new 50p was introduced as the 10 shilling note was taken out of circulation.

The 20p was introduced in 1982 to fill the gap between the 10p and the 50p

In 1983 the pound coin was introduced.

The current bimetallic pound was introduced in 1997. There was an older one that was 2x the size of the 1 pound but it wasn't issued for circulation.

So after a few decades in circulation, the govn't decided that the 5p, 10p and 50p were too big and so they changed their sizes.

I'll include pics soon. There's just something for you to read

Here's pics of the old coins. I can't seem to find a shilling or a new 50p...

Thanks for the young reference, but my parents are in their 60's and it was one of those bucket list trips.

I appreciate the links and the 83-present were the coins I was referring to. I have a few of the older coins too. They did bring me a couple of the bimetallic coins, very cool. I really liked the pound coins with the dragon on the reverse. I wish that there was an album that is out there I could put them in. If you happen to find one out there, let me know!

Well, if there isn't an album, there's always 2x2s.

By the way, wikipedia gives a good list of 1 pound coin designs (they have this for the other coins, too!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_po...ecimal_coin)

No idea how to find any not for circulation UK coins.....I live in the UK but mainly focus on stuff you can find in circulation and modern US coins.

There are several people here who collect UK coins. I am sure if you post a list on the trade section, people would respond.

If you need the "not made for circulation" types to complete your collection, you'll have to buy a mint set and break it apart, or buy a pound that came out of a broken-up mint set. The Royal Mint has also issued £1 coins to collectors separately, in little folders; I don't know if the "missing years" coins had folders made too, but the note in Krause says "mint sets only", so I don't think so.

wd1040: the coin posted by davemac isn't technically a "crown", it's a £5 gold coin, struck to the same standard as the old "circulation" gold £5 coins struck pre-WWI, though Krause lists it alongside the other coin types with this design (KM 1007b).