Includes Proceedings of the British Numismatic Society.

The United Kingdom was the last major nation-state in the world to adopt decimal currency, 50 years ago in 1971. Why was it so slow to do so? What changed politicians' and peoples' minds about it in the 1960s? Were Britain's plans to join the EEC influential? What was the impact of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand going decimal several years earlier? Or did it simply happen because of common sense, with a decimal system so much easier to learn and use than pounds, shillings and pence?The route to find the right designs was a complex one, with interfering politicians, struggling artists, and at one stage an angry Duke of Edinburgh! It took over five years to get there, and then there was the seven-sided 50 pence - a design classic we would say today, but what did the media and public think of it when it was launched in 1969?When Britain Went Decimal takes readers through the changeover leading to D-Day (decimalisation day), and beyond: how smooth and successful was the process? Did newspapers secretly hope it would fail? While decimalisation might have seemed right at the time, did it lead to inflation, as many people believe today?Entertainingly written and beautifully illustrated, this first book on decimalisation since 1973 attempts to answer all these questions and more, looking as much at the design - indeed the 'art' behind the new coinage - as at social, economic and political history.

More coin hoards have been recorded from Roman Britain than from any other province of the Empire. This comprehensive and lavishly illustrated volume provides a survey of over 3260 hoards of Iron Age and Roman coins found in England and Wales with a detailed analysis and discussion. Theories of hoarding and deposition and examined, national and regional patterns in the landscape settings of coin hoards presented, together with an analysis of those hoards whose findspots were surveyed and of those hoards found in archaeological excavations. It also includes an unprecedented examination of the containers in which coin hoards were buried and the objects found with them. The patterns of hoarding in Britain from the late 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD are discussed. The volume also provides a survey of Britain in the 3rd century AD, as a peak of over 700 hoards are known from the period from AD 253–296. This has been a particular focus of the project which has been a collaborative research venture between the University of Leicester and the British Museum funded by the AHRC. The aim has been to understand the reasons behind the burial and non-recovery of these finds. A comprehensive online database (https://finds.org.uk/database) underpins the project, which also undertook a comprehensive GIS analysis of all the hoards and field surveys of a sample of them.