The British farthing (part 2)

We cannot say for certain that the United Kingdom decimalised on the exact year of 1971 as they issued coins prior to that date by about 3 years (1968) which saw the new 10p come into circulation which at the time had the same diameters as the pre-decimal florin, or two shillings (24 pence). For some reason they reduced the value from 24 pence to 10 pence but yet kept the parameters identical. The 5 pence was again kept the same size as a shilling (two shillings = 24 pence, 24 divided by 2 = 12 pence = one shilling) which equates to 12 pence. Again this value was reduced dramatically from 12p to 5p which again, theoretically, was unprofitable and called for a cheaper alloy to be used in the production of the coins. CONTINUED ON PART 3.