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Australian coins
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Australian coins refers to the coins which are or were in use as Australian currency. During the early days of the colonies that formed Australia, foreign currency was used, but in 1910, a decade after federation, Australian coins were introduced. Australia used pounds, shillings and pence until 1966, when it adopted the decimal system with the Australian dollar divided into 100 cents. With the exception of the first Proclamation Coinage and the holey dollars, all Australian coins remain legal tender despite being withdrawn from circulation.
First coins
For many years after the first Australian colony, New South Wales, was founded in 1788, it did not have its own currency and had to rely on the coins of other countries.
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Australian coins refers to the coins which are or were in use as Australian currency. During the early days of the colonies that formed Australia, foreign currency was used, but in 1910, a decade after federation, Australian coins were introduced. Australia used pounds, shillings and pence until 1966, when it adopted the decimal system with the Australian dollar divided into 100 cents. With the exception of the first Proclamation Coinage and the holey dollars, all Australian coins remain legal tender despite being withdrawn from circulation.
First coins
For many years after the first Australian colony, New South Wales, was founded in 1788, it did not have its own currency and had to rely on the coins of other countries. During the early days of the colony, commodities such as wheat were sometimes used as a currency because of the shortage of coins. (The role of rum as a currency has been exaggerated.)
Spanish dollars were sometimes cut into "pieces of eight", quarters, and then into 2/3 and 1/3 segments, with the 2/3 segments (1/6 of original coin) being "shillings" and the 1/3 segments (1/12 of original coin) "sixpences" In 1791 Governor Phillip of New South Wales fixed the value of the Spanish dollar to equal five shillings.
Under the decree of 19 November 1800 by the governor Philip Gidley King the following coins were legal tender for the exchange value of:
- Guinea = £1/1/- (One pound and one shilling)
- Gold Mohur = £1/17/6 (one pound, 17 shillings and sixpence).
- Spanish dollar = 5 shillings.
- Ducat = 9/6 (9 shillings 6 pence).
- Rupee = 2/6 (2 shillings and 6 pence).
- Pagoda = 8/- (8 shillings).
- Dutch Guilder = 2/- (2 shillings).
- English shilling = 1/1 (1 shilling and 1 penny).
- Copper coin of 1 oz = 2 pence.
The settlers did have some George III one-penny coins, which were referred to as "Cartwheel pennies". These were the first British coins to be officially exported to the Australian colonies, and so can be considered Australia's first official coins. They were dated 1797 and 1799, with Britannia on one side and King George III on the other.
In 1812, Governor Lachlan Macquarie of New South Wales bought Spanish dollar coins, following the arrival of the ship Samarang at Port Jackson with 40,000 Spanish dollars, paying four shillings and nine pence for each dollar. He was worried that the coins would quickly be exported out of the colony and had holes cut in the middle of them to try to keep them in Australia. These were known as Holey dollars (valued at five shillings), with the piece from the middle being called the Dump (valued at around 15 pence). Both were declared legal currency on September 30, 1813.
British currency became the official currency of the Australian colonies after 1825, with almost £100,000-worth of British coins being imported during 1824–25. The Holey dollar was no longer legal tender after 1829.
Gold coins and Sovereigns
Unofficial gold coins were used during the gold rush of the 1850s. Traders' tokens were also used because of the shortage of coins caused by the large increase in population. Attempts to make gold coins in Adelaide in 1852 failed because of the discovery of a die-crack.
Australia's first official mint was in Sydney, founded in 1855. It produced gold coins with an original design between 1855 and 1870, with "Sydney Mint, Australia, One Sovereign" on one side and Queen Victoria on the other, or "Sydney Mint, Australia, Half Sovereign", before starting in 1870 to mint gold coins of British design. One gold sovereign equaled £1.
£sd
Australia as a whole began minting its pound, shilling and penny coins in 1910.
Dollar
The Australian dollar replaced the Australian pound on 14 February 1966 as part of its decimalisation process. At the time of introduction, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent coins were issued. $1 and $2 coins followed in 1984 and 1988 respectively. The one- and two-cent coins were discontinued in 1991 and withdrawn from circulation.
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