Just to show my age here, it doesn't seem that long ago the 5p coin circulating still had a picture of the old king on it. Will probably be 30 years now though.
The post box across the road from me still has GR on it, so I guess they won't be in a rush to carry out wholesale changes anytime soon.
Yeah, the new 5p and 10p came in around the early 90s. The old ones were the same size as the old one and two shilling, to help people adjust to decimalisation better. When I was a kid, it wasn't unusual to get a 1948 George VI coin in my bus fare. One day, one of my brothers even came home with a 1933 George V. Before the changeover, it was typical for coins a hundred years old to still be kicking around if they were in good nick.
I heard somewhere that the Queen's head on a coin won't become especially rare until the kids born today are adults; so a good 18-20 years, by which time William will likely be on the throne.
PS: There's a GR nearby to me, and I know of at least one VR box that's only a bus ride from me over in Cressington, on the way down to Otterspool Promenade.
