When I was a child I used to get a small amount of pocket money each week. I don’t recall how much exactly but I have a feeling that Mum and Nana, who lived with us, gave us a shilling each. We lived in a tiny village so there wasn’t anywhere to spend it unless we went to the local town or, occasionally to a big town a couple of hours away. We were encouraged to save for our summer holiday.By the time I was going to secondary school I was getting five shillings a week. I only ever handled coins when I was very young and then, later, 10 shilling , £1 and £5 notes. If I went to the village shop for my mum I had to put the amount on her account which was settled weekly.

The currency which was used in the 1950s and 60s.

At 18 I went to university and the rite of passage for that stage of life in those days was to open a bank account. My dad took me into his bank where our neighbour was bank manager and I came out a newly fledged account holder. It was so exciting when my first cheque book arrived with my name printed on every page. How grown up I felt!

There were no ATMs then so every Monday I went to the small bank on the campus and wrote out a cheque for £5. The bank clerk would hand me a £5 note which I tried to make last the week. My only expenses were drinks, snacks, stationery and bus fares. If I ever went into the city and bought myself something to wear or a new record (LP) I wrote a cheque.

How things have changed! Not just in how much things cost now but in the way we actually pay for them. Credit cards have been around a long time now and most people have been used to using a mixture of card and cash payments. However, since the COVID pandemic the use of cards has increased to the point where many people hardly use cash at all.

From card payments we have now progressed even further and people can pay in shops, cafes etc using watches or mobile phones. How strange that would look to a time traveller from the 1960’s!

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