The Family Tree of Money
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Australian dollar

The ancestry runs from pound sterling through the Australian pound to the Australian dollar.12

Years
February 14, 1966–present
Where
Australia; also adopted elsewhere
Family
Sterling
Status
In use

The ancestry runs from pound sterling through the Australian pound to the Australian dollar. Australia’s pound emerged as a distinct unit during the interwar breakup of common sterling arrangements. The dollar’s immediate predecessor was that Australian pound.12

Decimal currency began on February 14, 1966. Each new dollar represented ten old Australian shillings, making two dollars equal to one Australian pound. Dollar notes entered circulation as pound notes were retired.234

A fuller story is under research.

Timeline

Currency code: AUD

  1. Timeline under research.

Coins and notes

Images are under research. Each image will carry its caption, collection credit and public-domain or CC0 license.

How do we know?

Australian pound → Australian dollar

Documented redenominated as · 1966

Local pound decimalization.2

Verbatim source excerpt under research. The linked notes identify the source and passage supporting this connection.

Full connection evidence →

Successor connections

Complete evidence record →
Legal history and sources
Immediate predecessor
Australian pound
Conversion
2 Australian dollars = 1 Australian pound

RBA’s 1966 report values the new Australian dollar at ten old shillings, or two dollars per pound.2

RBA records public issue of Australian dollar notes on 14 February 1966 and subsequent retirement of pound notes.3

Currency Act 1965 s.2 makes its remaining provisions operative on 14 February 1966.4

Australian pound separated from the common sterling account system during1929–1936monetary breakup; earlier local sterling use and notes are continuity observations.1

Source notes

  1. Frank Decker · The Monetary Union of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom – Its Operation, Fragmentation and Break-up, Economic History Yearbook63(2),2022,375–407; Australian Attorney-General’s Department · Opinion 1564, Australian currency and money of account; Reserve Bank of Australia, Bulletin September 2018 · Money in the Australian Economy

    Decker 2022 pp 375–379;AGSOpinion 1564

  2. Reserve Bank of Australia · Annual Report 1966: Introduction

    Introduction

  3. Reserve Bank of Australia · Annual Report 1966: Other Activities

    Note Issue

  4. Commonwealth of Australia · Currency Act 1965, No. 95 — as made

    s.2(1)–(2)

Full claim history and source register →

Cite this currency

“Australian dollar.” The Family Tree of Money. Field Technologies, Inc. Data v49; accessed 14 October 2026.

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