'D-Day for decimal currency'

'D-Day for decimal currency', an illustration by JVL for Saxon Artists Ltd, 1971.

This illustration was one among several that illustrators carried out for our agent Saxon Artists, to mark the occasion when decimal currency was introduced in 1971. Pounds and pence gave way to pounds, shillings and pence or £sd. The arithmetical consequences of the change were made much easier when decimal currency was introduced. In the old days there were 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. 

As illustrators , before 1971, we were always paid in guineas (one guinea = £1 and 1 shilling).