Establishment

Paper currency

City Bank of Sydney in Australia cancelled £20 banknote

Commonwealth of Australia, £1 (1918)^{[nb 1]}

The Fisher Government's Australian Notes Act 1910^[6] gave the Governor-General the power to authorise the Treasurer to issue "Australian notes" as legal tender, "payable in gold coin on demand at the Commonwealth Treasury". It also prohibited the circulation of state notes and withdrew their status as legal tender.^[4][7] In the same year the Bank Notes Tax Act 1910 was passed imposing a prohibitive tax of 10% per annum on "all bank notes issued or re-issued by any bank in the Commonwealth after the commencement of this Act, and not redeemed", which effectively ended the use of private currency in Australia.

As a transitional measure lasting three years, blank note forms of 16 banks were supplied to the government in 1911 to be overprinted as redeemable in gold and issued as the first Commonwealth notes. Some of these banknotes were overprinted by the Treasury, and circulated as Australian banknotes until new designs were ready for Australia's first federal government-issued banknotes, which commenced in 1913.^[7]

In May 2015, the National Library of Australia announced that it had discovered the first £A 1 banknote printed by the Commonwealth of Australia, among a collection of specimen banknotes. This uncirculated Australian pound note, with the serial number (red-ink) P000001, was the first piece of currency to carry the coat of arms of Australia.^[8]

Gold standard

A corner grocery store in Sydney in 1934 with prices in shillings (/-) and pence (d).

The Australian currency was fixed in value to sterling. As such Australia was on the gold standard so long as Britain was.

In 1914, the British government removed sterling from the gold standard. When it was returned to the gold standard in 1925, the sudden increase in its value (imposed by the nominal gold price) unleashed crushing deflationary pressures. Both the initial 1914 inflation and the subsequent 1926 deflation had far-reaching economic effects throughout the British Empire, Australia and the world. In 1929, as an emergency measure during the Great Depression, Australia left the gold standard, resulting in a devaluation relative to sterling. A variety of pegs to sterling applied until December 1931, when the government devalued the local unit by 20%, making one Australian pound equal to 16 shillings sterling and one pound sterling equal to 25 Australian shillings.

Coins of the Australian pound also circulated freely in New Zealand, although they were never legal tender. By 1931, Australian coins made up approximately 30% of the total circulation in New Zealand. The devaluation of Australian and New Zealand exchange rates relative to the pound sterling led to New Zealand's Coinage Act 1933 and the issuing of the first coinage of the New Zealand pound.^[9]

World War II

During World War II, the Empire of Japan produced currency notes denominated in the Australian pound for use in Pacific island countries intended for occupation. Since mainland Australia was never occupied or intended to be occupied, the occupation currency was not used there, but it was used in the captured parts of the then-Australian territories of Papua and New Guinea.^[10]

Post-war devaluation

In 1949, when the United Kingdom devalued sterling against the US dollar, Australian Prime Minister and Treasurer Ben Chifley followed suit so the Australian pound would not become over-valued in sterling zone, countries with which Australia did most of its external trade at the time. As one pound sterling went from US$4.03 to US$2.80, the Australian pound went from US$3.224 to US$2.24.^[11]

Decimalisation

Decimalisation had been proposed for Australian currency since 1902, when a select committee of the House of Representatives, chaired by George Edwards, had recommended that Australia adopt a decimal currency with the florin (two shillings) as its base.^[12]

In February 1959 the Commonwealth Government appointed a Decimal Currency Committee to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of a decimal currency, and, if a decimal currency was favoured, the unit of account and denominations of subsidiary currency most appropriate for Australia, the method of introduction and the cost involved.^[13]

The committee presented its report in August 1960. It recommended the introduction of the new system on the second Monday in February 1963.^[13] In July 1961 the Commonwealth Government confirmed its support of a decimal currency system, but considered it undesirable to make final decisions on the detailed arrangement that would be necessary to effect the change.^[13] On 7 April 1963 the Commonwealth Government announced that a system of decimal currency was to be introduced into Australia at the earliest practicable date, and gave February 1966, as the tentative change-over date.^[13] On 14 February 1966, a decimal currency, the dollar of one hundred cents, was introduced.^[14]

Under the implementation conversion rate, £A1 was set as the equivalent of $2. Thus, ten shillings became $1 and one shilling became 10¢. As a shilling was equal to twelve pence, a new cent was worth slightly more than a penny.