Gear shift knob idea

Had an idea the other day. I am going to find an unordorned wooden gearshift knob and set into the top of it a British coin of the appropriate year for my car.

I was thinking a sixpence at first, but it isn't going to be big enough. It's either going to have to be a shilling or a florin.

Anyone interested in having one? There is a good supply of coinage on the UK Ebay for pretty reasonable prices and I have the tools here to do it.

What a neat idea! My first thought was a Pound coin to symbolize the 'pound of flesh' that my TR6 has demanded. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

A one shilling coin is 15/16" in diameter... that might be about right.

I carry one in the TR4 as it is just right for adjusting the ZS carbs.

As for getting the date to match your car, the date may be on the reverse (tails) so if you have HRH EII face up the date may be unseen.

Mine's a 73 so post decimalisation.
Nice idea though.

ok...gimme a British monetary lesson...what's the 'pre-decimalization" deal...

In the early 60's (62 I think) the British Govt in their infinite wisdom converted the currency to decimals ie 100p to the pound sterling.
Prior to that we had 12d (the d meant "old pence/pennies" vs the more modern p meaning "new pence/pennies") to the Shilling and 20 shillings to the pound sterling.
Of course to complicate things a bit there were a lot of coin denominations 1/4d (farthing), 1/2d (halfpenny), 1d (penny), 3d (thruppeny bit), 6d (tanner), 1shilling, 2shilling (florin), 2&6 (half crown), 5shilling (5 bob) after that came the notes.
The math in use to manage this maze of odd-ball coinage was truly impressive; us kids had a tough time learning it though.
I remember the great British public outcry at the time though because everything just happened to go up in price by about 5% as this change occurred. The store owners were mad because they had to replace all their cash registers also.

Learn something new everyday, and i thought it was going to be about gearknobs.

Geo -

The dates for all the shilling coins is on the "tails" side. I actually like that side better. There is a difference between the English and Scotish shillings. The English has King Richard's 3 lions, while the Scotish has the lion rampant. The thing is, I really like the design on the QEii's 2 shilling. There is an interweaving vine with the thistle, rose and shamrock all represented.

Still trying to decide.

I think decimalization took place around 1970. I was there in 1978 and there were still plenty of shilling coinage around. When they made the new coinage, they made it the same size as the old.