Hi oldjoe78 and welccome to the forum, predecemal is the term used to describe Great Britain coinage before 1967 or about then as the there wasn't an exact line drawn in the ground at the point between the old pounds shillings and pence and the then new decimal pounds and 100 pence to the pound system we currently use. If you have a large assortment of coins and are thinking of taking up collecting the first thing you will need is a book. As a starting point you can't go wrong with a copy of Chris's Collectors coins GB. thanks for the book info, i am going to the library this morning to see what they have. no, i am not taking up collecting, my uncle was in the army stationed in england during ww2 and he was a collector, when he died he left the coins to my aunt. she recently died and left them to me. i am just now going thru them to sort stuff out. since i know nothing about them it will take a while to seperate and make a list of them. there are several folders with collections in them ,about 6 bags with 100+ coins in each. lots of one shilling, two schilling, six pence, half penny, one penny, one florin, and a few other assorted ones. since i do not collect coins (i always thought they should be spent) i will at some point sell them. once i find out what i have and an approximate worth. there are also a lot of pre 1964 silver washington quarters. if my library does not have a book i will purchase the one you suggest. if anyone is looking for a particular coin i will be happy to let them know if i have it as i go thru and make a list. i have several of the three pence like the picture on this site with what looks like 3 flowers on it.