Fifty Years Ago

It was only the ‘dozens’ I ever sussed out, @Esspee. 12 pennies in a shilling, so 12 x fourpence would be be 4 shillings. And three farthings were 3/4 of a penny, so multiplied by twelve, 3/4 of a shilling, which = ninepence.
Phew!

I was pretty hopeless at maths in general - it took me 2 goes to pass O level, and still only got an E.

In the 1950s half crowns seemed worth a fortune. I remember when I was about 7 my grandad pressed a coin into my hand and said "here's a penny for you" and it was actually half a crown. I pointed out his 'mistake' but he just smiled. Oh the heady delight of instant wealth! 25p just doesn't seem the same.

....on reflection ..no it was only 12 and half pence!

Espee and Witzend The quick way of doing that mentally would be to roundthe 43/4 up to 5, 5x12 is 60 then subtract the 12 farthings=3d answer 57d or 4s9d
Children are supposed to be taught shortcuts when doing mental arithmetic like rounding up or down.

Remember it well as a 13 year old. No issues with converting to Decimal coinage for me. However, I still work in inches, feet and yards, pints and miles!

Exactly JackyB and they all look the same unless I put my reading glasses on!

I had left school when British money was changed and didn't really find the conversion all that difficult, but then we had travelled a lot and I was used to foreign currency that used the metric system.