Whilst frantically scrabbling around to make the boat look tidy prior to short notice visitors last Friday, I picked up 4 little hard-back notebooks of Mum's. One of them turned out to be an account with her local grocer dating back to April 1964. This was a weekly delivery paid as a monthly account
Where the account was paid the 'twopenny' stamp appears - probably the grocer's service charge.
£1 19s 6 1/2d seems to be a normal week. Of which I note that by far the most expensive item is 40 Players at 9s 8d. The week that went over £2 was because she purchased 60 players ( I wonder if I was responsible for their increased stress levels). A tin of Lambs Tongues at 3s 9d was quite expensive too.
Unfortunately some sibling favouritism has been uncovered - the week of my sister's fourteenth birthday the spend was upped to £2 10s 1 1/2d. Whilst the week of my 10th birthday (8 weeks earlier), the spend was REDUCED to £1 16s 5d. Now I don't want to start picking fights here, but just how much of a percentage share of, 'Easter eggs as pre-ordered', at a massive cost of £2 8s 9d, did I get?
I am a damaged child.
£1 19s 6 1/2d seems to be a normal week. Of which I note that by far the most expensive item is 40 Players at 9s 8d. The week that went over £2 was because she purchased 60 players ( I wonder if I was responsible for their increased stress levels). A tin of Lambs Tongues at 3s 9d was quite expensive too.
Unfortunately some sibling favouritism has been uncovered - the week of my sister's fourteenth birthday the spend was upped to £2 10s 1 1/2d. Whilst the week of my 10th birthday (8 weeks earlier), the spend was REDUCED to £1 16s 5d. Now I don't want to start picking fights here, but just how much of a percentage share of, 'Easter eggs as pre-ordered', at a massive cost of £2 8s 9d, did I get?
I am a damaged child.
JILL, hang your head in SHAME!! Yes Shame! The pounds shillings and pence of our youth, pre 15th February 1972 for those that don't remember calculating this archaic system, the pennies were not P's but D's!!
ReplyDelete£SD.
Head suitably hung, I will amend immediately. Why was it 'd' though?
ReplyDelete"librae, solidi, denarii
ReplyDeletePound, shilling, pence latin style
Latin today - French tomorrow!
DeleteI have also made a mistake...decimalisation was 15/2/1971
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was "Stamp Duty" which got its name becaue you bought stamps to the appropriate value and stuck them on a document to make it legal. As the government owned the Post Office then buying stamps was a simple way to pay a tax.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense Paul, but why would a monthly credit account be taxed?
DeleteLSD - Lucy and the Sky with Diamonds - Oh different £SD.
ReplyDeleteAndy, you are such a cool hip kind of guy!
ReplyDeleteThat is a fantastic keepsake. How wonderful.. anyway do you think you were a damaged child because you had to eat lambs tongues?!!
ReplyDeleteNot too damaged Jill, I see you got some battenburg cake once a week!
Oh and I remember Blue Band.. It was the cheapest marg in those days!
I earned just over 9 shillings a week in those days in Newmarket when I worked for one of the big racing stables.. Ah sweet memories! xx
Damaged because nobody spent any extra for my birthday and I don't know about lamb's tongues - I hate battenburg; always have and always will...yuk!
Delete9 bob wasn't bad at a racing stable I'd have thought - above today's equivalent of the minimum wage?
Hi G&J This subject intregued me, I can remember as a youngster, my dad sticking 'tuppenny' stamps onto receipts when people paid him for work he had done for them, but I had no clue why, so I have just 'google'd'it, and the answer was as follows:- It appears that the requirement for putting stamps on receipts was brought in by the 1891 Stamp Act in order to raise money for the Government. The 1920 Finance Act specified that any receipt for something worth £2.00 or over should have a twopence stamp attached. If it didn’t then the receipt was apparently not valid in a court of law(1). Stamps on receipts were abolished by the 1964 Finance Act.
ReplyDeleteSo there you and I have the definitave answer!!!
Beardy Chas
Who's a clever boy then - put you up as tonight's guest blogger
DeleteBlimey, you have room on your boat to store books dating back to 1964? I am impressed. I'm currently in the process of paring down my belongings in readiness for a move aboard, but now I'll have to re-assess. Maybe I can keep my scalectrix set after all? :-)
ReplyDeleteOf course you can keep your scalectrix Ian and your train set - they just have to run under and through things! One thing I can guarantee, however much you pare things down it won't be enough. The stuff you get rid of will be the stuff you need and the stuff you keep will rarely see the light of day!
Delete