Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post
... the Bank of England never got many ten-bob notes back after decimalisation (15th Feb 1971) because everyone kept them as souvenirs ...
I think maybe this was more because they were taken out of circulation before decimalisation, though I am sure many were kept back as you say. (I have one myself!). According to this Wikipedia article, "The ten shilling note was withdrawn on 20 November 1970 following the introduction on 14 October 1969 of the fifty pence coin."

My first drink in a pub was on the Friday before D-Day (that's D for Decimal - 1971 rather than the Normandy landings in 1944 ): a Double Diamond in the since-demolished Cupid in Hemel Hempstead, costing 2/11 (or 2s 11d, just shy of 15p). My first real ale was a pint of Boddingtons in Lancaster in 1973, which cost 12½p.