DECIMAL CURRENCY BILL (Hansard, 15 May 1969)

§ LORD BESWICK
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time.

§ LORD FRASER OF LONSDALE
My Lords, may I ask the indulgence of 211 the House to intervene for the briefest possible time? This subject is perhaps 150 years old. Nevertheless, I had the honour to be the first in this House to pursue it again, some few years ago, after the South African Government had been the first among our family at that time to introduce decimal coinage; and I had many passages of arms with the noble Earl, Lord Dundee, when he was the Minister concerned. I should like to make just a few observations.
The first is that I welcome the Bill and congratulate the Government upon having brought it thus far. Secondly, I welcome the pound as the unit. I do not think the arguments for the 10s. unit were sound. I welcome the pound for status reasons. Thirdly, I do not consider that the smallest coin in the decimal system now to be brought in—namely, about 2½d.—is too small, for the very good reason that 2½d. to-day is the equivalent of a farthing thirty years ago, and the farthing was hardly used at that time except when playing cards. Very soon 2½d. will be worth very much less; and it will not be found to be too heavy a coin. Furthermore, I do not support the 6d. As well as the noble Lord, Lord Sainsbury, I am a shopkeeper and I know what a fearful muddle the saleswomen and men will get into if they have to deal with the 6d. any longer. Moreover, the extent to which the 6d. is required for automatic machines is almost negligible. I therefore think that the Bill is a piece of good business done by this House and I congratulate this House and the Government.

§ LORD BESWICK
My Lords, in moving that this Bill do now pass, I should like to say how much I appreciated what was said by the noble Lord, Lord Fraser of Lonsdale. The House will probably agree that a word of good will to the Bill on its way to the Statute Book is called for. There were some disputations, but the controversies were always carried out with absolute fairness. I thank those who took part and I acknowledge the scrupulous fairness shown throughout the discussions that we have had. We ought also, I think, to offer good wishes to those who will be responsible for the change-over period and, in particular, this House may care 212 to send best wishes to my noble friend Lord Fiske, Chairman of the Decimal Currency Board, who was in hospital throughout the time that we considered the Bill here but who just this week, I am glad to say, is back home again. He will have some of the burdens and I am sure that we all wish him well. I beg to move that the Bill do now pass.