U.K. And Ireland Celebrate 50 Years Since 'Decimal Day'

Fifty years ago Monday, the U.K. and Ireland put an end to a system of currency that had been used for hundreds of years, and made a switch to decimalization — the system where currency is based on multiples of 10 and 100.

Before Feb. 15, 1971, Britain's currency was 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound — or 240 pence to a pound.

But that's not all. There were also two farthings in a ha'penny, three pennies in a bit, two bits in a sixpence, two sixpences in a shilling, five shillings in a crown, and four crowns in a pound. There were also two shillings in a florin and 10 florins made a pound. (Here's a chart.)

The system was bewildering to foreigners but beloved by many Brits, according to the English writer Anthony Burgess: "Tanners and bobs, ha'pennies and threepenny bits, were instantly recognisable descriptions, and the romance of the coinage was enhanced by the presence of coins of Queen Victoria, some of them 100 years old. Long familiarity had inevitably generated a deep-rooted affection: a beautiful and venerable currency, certainly; cherished, too; but undoubtedly baffling to those not born to its complexities."