That brought back memories of my childhood in the 50s.  I tried for many years to get one penny from each year - not knowing it was impossible!  Younger viewers probably look at this coin and think it's something like the modern 'penny' - wrong, it was HUGE!  In the days when I got 6d pocket money and Mars Bars were 4d, you often used to have quite a few of these in your pockets - but not for long, the lining couldn't take the weight!<br><br>On the subject of conversion to US money, my sister had an American pen pal just about the time of decimalisation, so I remember that just before the new pennies came in, the old ones were worth exactly a cent (so £1 was worth $2.4).  Nothing like these days of near parity...  Mind you, when I was a kid a half-crown (2/6 - 12.5p) was also known as 'half a dollar', so I'd guess that the £ had been worth even more 20 years or so earlier.