Series 9

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Series 9

Australia has some very distinctive money, multicoloured banknotes made of plastic and coins decorated with unique emblems and wildlife. But the brightly coloured polymer notes are only the latest in an intriguing history of systems of exchange in Australia stretching back to before 1788.

Find out moreSources and further study: The Ascent Of Money by Niall Ferguson (Penguin)The Colony: A History Of Early Sydney by Grace Karskens (Allen & Unwin)The Original Australians by Josephine Flood (Allen & Unwin)The Ascent Of Money (BBC DVD)Museum of Australian Currency, Martin Place, Sydney www.rba.gov.au/Museum/index_static.htmlHow banknotes are made www.rba.gov.au/CurrencyNotes/CurrencyNoteProduction/how.htmlCirculating coins www.ramint.gov.au/designs/products/circulating.cfmHistory of the Sydney Mint www.hht.net.au/discover/highlights/guidebooks/history_of_the_mint

Australia before moneyAltHoUGH they did not use money,

the Australian Aborigines had systems of exchange.

Neighbouring tribes or clans would exchange gifts or barter with each other for items they

needed. Some items such as pearl shells (pictured)

from the north, which were gathered by coastal tribes and

traded inland across the continent, could become very valuable the further they moved away from their source. there were often set rates of exchange. In one area of Victoria a tribe controlled a place where axe stone was quarried and traded three pieces of axe-stone for a possum-skin rug.

From barter to holey dollarWHeN the British arrived to colonise Australia in 1788 they did not plan for money circulation because it was a penal settlement. Convicts didn’t need money and the soldiers were paid only in paymaster notes or promissory notes that could only be redeemed when they returned to england, so a barter economy soon evolved. For a short time alcohol was the most readily accepted form of barter. twenty years after the founding of the colony, as commerce grew, the need for coins and banknotes became obvious. Some people took to importing foreign coins or issuing their own notes. to counter the money problem governor lachlan Macquarie ordered a shipment of 40,000 Spanish dollars into the official currency. A hole was punched in the middle, making two coins of each. the “holey dollar’’ was worth five shillings and the punched hole or “dump’’

was worth one shilling and three pence.

Holey dollar to minting coinstHe holey dollar served its purpose well for several years but was replaced in 1829 with Sterling currency from Britain. Most of the holey dollars and dumps were rounded up to be sent back to england to be melted down. the gold rush of 1851 resulted in people using unrefined gold or minting their own gold coins for use as money. In South Australia the governor authorised the minting of sovereigns, known as Adelaide pounds, in 1852. to protect the official British currency, however, the British government authorised the setting

up of the first branch of the UK Royal Mint outside england. the Sydney Mint was established in one of the wings of Sydney Hospital.

Who is on the notes

$1 these notes, which are no longer in circulation, featured a picture of the Queen (top) on one side and artwork by David Malangi (it was used without his permission and he was later paid compensation by the Reserve Bank).

$2 Also no longer in circulation, these notes featured wool industry pioneer John Macarthur on one side and agricultural scientist William Farrer (above). A $2 coin was first issued in 1988 (right) to replace the note.

$5 the old five dollar note had a portrait of botanist Joseph Banks, who accompanied James Cook

on his voyage. on the reverse was a picture of

Caroline Chisholm who helped settle female immigrants in Australia. the five dollar note was changed in 1995, the new one featured the Queen and Parliament House in Canberra. Another new note was issued in 2001 with Sir Henry Parkes (pictured), a NSW premier who advocated Federation of the colonies, and Helen Margaret Spence, a leading campaigner for women’s right to vote.

$10 the first tens had an image of author Henry lawson

with his home town of Gulgong

in the background. on the other side was Francis Greenway, the architect. A special-edition polymer note was issued for the Bicentenary in 1988 with an image of a young Aboriginal and a First Fleet

ship. It was only produced in that year. later when all of the paper notes were replaced with polymer, the ten showed an image of writers Dame Mary Gilmore (pictured bottom left) and Banjo Paterson.

$20 the first paper twenty had images of flight pioneers lawrence Hargrave and Sir Charles

Kingsford Smith. the polymer notes now show colonial-era

businesswoman Mary Reiby (pictured) and founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service John Flynn.

$50 the old fifty-dollar notes paid tribute to Nobel

Prize-winning bacteriologist Howard Walter

Florey and scientist Ian Clunies Ross. today the notes have images of Aboriginal inventor and author David Unaipon and pioneer female politician edith Cowan (pictured).

$100 the first hundreds were introduced in 1984, showing explorer Douglas Mawson and astronomer John tebbutt. the polymer hundreds issued in 1996 show World War I general John Monash and opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (above).

Decimal currencyIN 1960 a separate bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), was established for the purpose of issuing currency. In 1963 the government decided to change

our pounds to decimal currency to make the money easier to use. Various names were suggested for our basic unit of currency, including the Royal, but eventually the dollar was chosen. the changeover was made on February 14, 1966. one dollar was equal to the old two pounds, a shilling was exchanged for 10 cents.

Colonial banknotesSINCe early in the 1800s many institutions had been issuing their own unofficial notes, not sanctioned by the colonial governments. the first official notes with government approval were those issued by the Bank of New South Wales, first circulated in about 1816. other colonies established their own banks which also issued banknotes. Colonial governments also issued their own notes, all of which were based on British money. these would remain in circulation, alongside the official currency the english pound, up until the early 20th century.

How coins are maden A committee discusses and approves ideas for designs for the coin.

n A designer then makes a sketch which is turned into a large plaster of paris sculpture. the plaster sculpture is used to cast a mould from which an epoxy resin copy is made.

n From this a reducing machine makes a small steel copy of the coin known as a reduction punch.

n the reduction punch is used to make a master die, which is used to create lots of working dies. the working dies are then used to punch out designs on metal blanks.

n the metal blanks are cut from strips of metal alloy, the composition of which is strictly controlled according to the value of the coin.

n the blanks are first given a rim around the edges to make them easier for the machines to handle. they are then heated to soften the metal so that they can be struck with a die. this is called annealing.

n the coins are then burnished to make them shiny by being

tumbled with a mixture of small steel balls, ceramic media and chemicals.

n the design is then punched into the metal with the dies. this is known as coining.

n once the design has been punched into the

blank, the coins are packed and stored ready

for distribution.

Australian pounds

AFteR Federation in 1901, when the colonies joined together, the government worked on issuing a single Australian currency. At first the

government simply overprinted existing notes. It was not until

1910 that the Australian Notes Act was passed creating a national

currency. A tax was also imposed on private banknotes to discourage their use. From 1910 coins were issued but the first Australian note, a ten-shilling note, was not printed until May 1913, other denominations followed later in the year. Australia would use pounds, shillings and pence until the currency was decimalised on February 14, 1966.

The first Australian banknote (10 shillings) was issued in May 1913

1924 issue Australian £100 note

Did you know?n the holey dollars were created by William Hershell, a convict who had been transported for forging coins.

n Holey dollars remained in circulation in tasmania until 1849. only a few hundred holey dollars remain and they are highly prized by collectors and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

n Many of the early Australian banknotes showed early industry. the ten-shilling note featured an image of the Goulburn Weir, part of one of Australia’s big irrigation programs. the first pound note featured an image of quartz mining in Victoria. the five-pound note showed an image of the Hawkesbury River, symbolising the fishing and oyster industries.

n Up until February 1966 Australian money was based on the British system of 12 pennies

to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound. Different denominations of coins

were also used including the halfpenny (ha’penny), three penny (thrippence), six

penny, shilling and florin (two shillings).

n Australians have had some interesting nicknames for their money. the sixpence was known as a “zac’’ believed to be derived from the Scottish pronunciation “sachspence’’. A shilling was a bob, the origin of which is unknown, or a deener, probably named after the Arab coin dinah. the Australian two-cent coin was sometimes called the “twin lizzie’’ because it had a frill-necked lizard on one side and Queen elizabeth “lizzie’’ II on the other.

n In the 1950s a new series of notes was issued with prominent people from Australian history including Henry Parkes.

n the Australian polymer notes are printed by the company Note Printing Australia, which is a division of the Reserve Bank of Australia. It also produces polymer notes for other countries including Bangladesh, Brunei, Chile, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Western Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri lanka and thailand. Source www.dfat.gov.au/facts/currency.html

n the pennies in pre-decimal days featured a kangaroo but the one- and two-cent pieces that replaced the pennies and halfpennies featured a feathertail glider possum and a frill-necked lizard. the kangaroo was on the first decimal dollar note as part of an Aboriginal artwork and also later turned up on the coat of arms on the 50-cent piece along with the emu, but it returned to our coins with the issue of dollar coins in 1984.

The Sydney Mint, 1860s

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