Australia's Currency
pp. 59-61 · Read in the full issue
Change Will Affect Most Islands
Australia’s decision to base her currency on the metric system, announced in April, is of much interest to the South Pacific terri tories, because most of them maintain close trading relations with the Commonwealth.
AUSTRALIAN currency is used entirely in the Australian terri tories of Papua-New Guinea, Nor folk Island and Nauru. The same changes as are planned in Australia will take place there.
Australian currency is used in the British Solomon Islands, and, in association with French currency, in the New Hebrides. These countries will have to decide whether to follow Australia into the metric system.
The currency of Tonga has been maintained at par with that of Aus tralia, but Tonga has already an nounced it will adopt the metric system.
New Zealand has already agreed in principle to adopt decimal currency and Fiji’s trading relations with Aus tralia are so close that a change is bound to be considered there. NZ’s currency is kept at par with sterling; Fiji’s is 12i per cent, under sterling.
Samoa Must Follow Western Samoa’s currency is at par with that of New Zealand and Britain, and if changes are made in New Zealand, Samoa must follow suit.
The Australian change-over is three years away (February, 1966); but so much has to be done in the way of adjusting records and accounts to the new measurement, and in altering accounting machines, that it probably will be postponed beyond that.
The chief unit of the new Aus tralian currency will be the present 10/-. It divides easily, on the metric system, into 100 parts, each part be ing worth 1.2 of what is now the penny. The only coin whose nominal value will require changing is the penny. Now, one pound equals 24C pennies; in the new plan £1 will equal 200 pennies and 10/- will equal 100.
The 100 parts of 10/- (each wort! 1.2 d) will almost certainly be callec
:ents. The other Australian coins will juite easily become part of the netric currency—2/- equals 20 cents; I/- equals 10 cents; 6d equals 5 rents; and the 3d coin—if it is re amed —will be worth 2i cents.
It is unlikely that any of the pre ;ent coins will be retained for long if ter 1966. It is supposed that new joins will be designed and minted to ake their place. It is expected that before 1966 the 3d piece will be ibolished, and a smaller and lighter join will replace the penny, and be railed a cent. The halfpenny will iisappear.
A name for the chief unit—now railed ten shillings—still has to be lound. All sorts of people are hurry ng in with suggestions of all sorts jf names —“Austral” and “Roo” have seen submitted by ardent Australians.
History of the Dollar History and commonsense seem ;o indicate that the name of the new mit should be “dollar”. Some people object because “it suggests a further surrender to the United States.”
But that is prejudice. The word ‘dollar” is not a United States word —it was in use long before Wash ington adopted it.
There are many currencies around he world based on the name “dollar”. \mong others, there is a Canadian dollar, a Singapore dollar, and a Hongkong dollar—all well-known rurrencies. Why not an Australian dollar, which would be equal to ten shillings in the old Australian :urrency; 7/6 in sterling or New Zealand; 8/9 in Fijian; $1.14 in US; and so on?
An Abbreviation The word “dollar” was derived from the German word “thaler”. It first was used as an abbreviation of “Joachimsthaler”, which was a piece of money first coined, about 1518 AD, in the Valley of St. Joachim, Bavaria. The thaler, which gradu ally became dollar in other countries, was widely used in Northern Ger many and Denmark until about 1875.
There has been much speculation about the origin of the symbol $, to indicate a dollar. It has been vari ously claimed to be a modification of the letters US; of the figure 8, which indicated the “piece of eight”, being the “Spanish dollar” of 8 Reals; of HS, which once indicated the Roman unit; of PS, once used in Spanish accounts to indicate the word “Peso”; and of a device formerly seen on the reverse of the old Spanish dollar.