Noel Moore was one of the principal architects of the controversial change to decimal currency in Britain in 1971.

The idea was, of course, not a new one. A British Royal Commission had considered a change in 1867, after the 1851 Great Exhibition, but had eventually come out against it, saying that it had “few merits”. Russia was the first country to convert to decimal currency in 1710 under Peter the Great; the US adopted the decimal dollar in 1792; postrevolutionary France changed to the decimal franc in 1803 and, after many other countries, Australia converted in 1966.

A new British Committee of Inquiry on Decimal Currency was set up by the Government in 1961, with the Earl of Halsbury as its chairman and Moore as its secretary, and it published a report two years later recommending that Britain proceed with decimalisation. There was considerable debate as to what should be the principal unit of the new currency. In the end the pound, rightly, prevailed — for reasons both of economics and prestige, if not of ease of conversion.

The decision to go ahead was taken during the period of the Labour Government under Harold Wilson. When James Callaghan, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the decision in 1966, he said: “It is the government’s conclusion, shared I know by large sections of industry, commerce, science and banking, that the change to a decimal coinage will bring considerable benefit to the economy at large.”

From 1966 to 1972 Moore was secretary of the Decimal Currency Board set up under the chairmanship of Lord Fiske to organise and oversee implementation. Preparations included a massive two-year public information drive, a song by Max Bygraves called Decimalisation, special programmes on the BBC and the closure of banks for two working days so that they could stock up with the new currency. The half-penny and half crown (2s 6d) were withdrawn in 1969 to ease the transition to the new system, the £1 being retained but the ten-shilling note giving way to the 50p piece. At about the same time, the new 5p (old shilling) and 10p (old florin) were introduced.

Unsurprisingly, the new currency, although notably simpler than the complicated old system of 240 “old pence” to the pound, was not without its critics. Some believed it allowed retailers to ramp up prices; elderly people found adjustment to the new coins difficult and many objected to the term “pee” instead of pence. As some consolation, in 1982 the 20p coin was introduced bearing the simple legend “twenty pence”.

Staff waited apprehensively on “D-Day” itself (February 15, 1971) for the phones to ring. But in fact there were no alarms over the appearance of the new ½aAA Channel Four 4 documentary made by Channel Four about the decimalisationshown in 2000 later concluded that on the whole the change had been made “very smoothly”.

Moore published The Decimalisation of Britain’s Currency, the definitive book on the subject, in 1973.

Noel Ernest Ackroyd Moore was born in 1928 and educated at Penistone Grammar School in Yorkshire and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read modern languages and was awarded a Half-Blue for chess.

During his National Service (1950-52), he served as a second lieutenant in the Royal Army Education Corps and he subsequently served three and a half years as a captain in the Intelligence Corps of the Territorial Army. He entered the Civil Service as an assistant principal in 1952 and was assigned to the Post Office, then a government department, being promoted to principal grade in 1957.

Moore’s later career was spent as an Under-Secretary in the Civil Service Department, where he became responsible for internal training, including his appointment as principal of the Civil Service College at Sunningdale from 1981 to 1986.

Moore was a man of great charm and capability who tended to hide his talent behind a natural diffidence. In retirement he was much in demand for advice on how to handle the European Community’s conversion of national currencies to the euro; and he advised the Bank of England Museum on an exhibition, All Change, which marked the 25th anniversary of decimal currency’s introduction.

He also dedicated time to helping the Brentwood Oxfam Shop with Mary, his wife of more than 50 years.

She died in January, and he leaves two sons.

Noel Moore, civil servant, was born on November 25, 1928. He died from a brain tumour on May 30, 2008, aged 79