Editing Australian dollar (section)

== History ==
{{Redirect|Australian Royal|Australian royalty|Monarchy of Australia}}
{{Main|History of Australian currency}}

=== Background ===
Before [[Australian federation|Federation]] in 1901, the six colonies that comprised Australia had separate currencies, all of which closely replicated the [[pound sterling|British currency system]], and were usually exchangeable with each other on a one-to-one basis. Hence Federation was not seen as urgently requiring a single, unified currency. For another 10 years, colonial banknotes and coins continued to be the main circulating currencies.

In 1902, a select committee of the [[Australian House of Representatives|House of Representatives]], chaired by [[George Edwards (Australian politician)|George Edwards]], had recommended that Australia adopt a single, national decimal currency, with a pound divided into ten [[Florin (British coin)|florin]]s and each florin comprising 100 cents.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=reports%2F1902%2F1902_ppd4.pdf |title = Report from the Select Committee on Coinage |publisher = Commonwealth of Australia |date = 3 April 1902 |access-date = 31 October 2019 |archive-date = 19 December 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191219173736/https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=reports%2F1902%2F1902_ppd4.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref> However, the recommendation was not acted upon.

The [[Australian pound]] (A£) was introduced in 1910, at par with the [[pound sterling]] (A£1 = UK£1). Like the UK pound, it was divided into 240 pence, or 20 shillings (each comprising 12 pence). In December 1931, the Australian currency was devalued by 25%, so that one pound five shillings Australian was equivalent to one pound sterling.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-03/03_Colin_Clark_speech.pdf |title=What have we learnt? The Great Depression in Australia from the perspective of today  |website=Treasury |publisher=[[Government of Australia]] |access-date=17 March 2023 |page=37 |first1= David |last1=Gruen |first2=Colin |last2=Clark}}</ref>

In 1937, a banking [[Royal commissions in Australia|royal commission]], appointed by the [[Lyons government]], recommended that Australia adopt "a system of decimal coinage ... based upon the division of the Australian pound into [[Mill (currency)|1000 parts]]".<ref name="new">{{cite news |url = https://museum.rba.gov.au/exhibitions/the-decimal-revolution/a-new-currency/ |title = A New Currency |publisher = Reserve Bank of Australia Museum |access-date = 17 October 2019 |archive-date = 29 November 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191129032752/https://museum.rba.gov.au/exhibitions/the-decimal-revolution/a-new-currency/ |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/publications/tabledpapers/HPP052016003213/upload_pdf/HPP052016003213_1937_74.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22publications/tabledpapers/HPP052016003213%22 |title=Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the monetary and banking systems at present in operation in Australia |date=24 August 1937}}</ref> This recommendation was not accepted either.

=== Adoption of the dollar ===
In February 1959, treasurer [[Harold Holt]] appointed a Decimal Currency Committee, chaired by [[Walter D. Scott]], to examine the merits of decimalisation. The committee reported in August 1960 in favour of decimalisation and proposed that a new currency be introduced (from February 1963), to be modelled on South Africa's replacement of the [[South African pound]] with the [[South African rand|rand]] (worth 10 shillings or {{frac|2}} pound). The [[Menzies Government (1949–66)|Menzies government]] announced its support for decimalisation in July 1961, but delayed the process in order to give further consideration to the implementation process.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/featurearticlesbytitle/9A953DE15F376525CA256F2A00073477?OpenDocument |title=Report of the 1959 Decimal Currency Committee |publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics |year=1959 |access-date=17 October 2019 |archive-date=22 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222144523/https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/featurearticlesbytitle/9A953DE15F376525CA256F2A00073477?OpenDocument |url-status=live }}</ref> In April 1963, Holt announced that a decimal currency was scheduled to be introduced in February 1966, with a base unit equal to 10 shillings, and that a Decimal Currency Board would be established to oversee the transition process.<ref name=new/>

A public consultation process was held in which over 1,000 names were suggested for the new currency. This was reduced to a shortlist of seven names: austral, crown, dollar, pound, regal, tasman and royal.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Curran |first=James |title=The unknown nation: Australia after empire |last2=Ward |first2=Stuart |date=2010 |publisher=Melbourne University Publishing |isbn=978-0-522-85645-3 |location=Carlton, Vic |page=94}}</ref> In June 1963, Holt announced that the new currency would be called the "royal". This met with widespread public disapproval, and three months later it was announced that it would instead be named the "dollar".<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/the-introduction-of-decimal-currency-how-we-avoided-nostrils-and-learned-to-love-the-bill/ |title = The Introduction of Decimal Currency: How We Avoided Nostrils and Learned to Love the Bill |publisher = Museum of Australian Democracy |access-date = 17 October 2019 |archive-date = 20 December 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191220113518/https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/the-introduction-of-decimal-currency-how-we-avoided-nostrils-and-learned-to-love-the-bill/ |url-status = live }}</ref>

The pound was replaced by the dollar on 14 February 1966<ref>{{cite web |title=Introducing the New Decimal Banknotes |url=http://museum.rba.gov.au/displays/rba-currency-reform/#introducing-the-new-decimal-banknotes |website=Reserve Bank of Australia Museum |publisher=[[Reserve Bank of Australia]] |access-date=31 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427094349/http://museum.rba.gov.au/displays/rba-currency-reform/#introducing-the-new-decimal-banknotes |archive-date=27 April 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> with the conversion rate of A$2 = A£1. For example, a pre-decimal amount of nine pounds, sixteen shillings and sixpence (£9 16s 6d) became $19.65 in terms of dollars and cents. Since Australia was still part of the fixed-exchange [[sterling area]], the exchange rate was fixed to the [[pound sterling]] at a rate of A$1 = 8s sterling (or £1 stg = A$2.50, and in turn £1 stg = US$2.80). In 1967, Australia effectively left the sterling area when the pound sterling was devalued against the US dollar from US$2.80 to US$2.40, but the Australian dollar chose to retain its peg to the US dollar at A$1 = US$1.12 (hence appreciating in value versus sterling).

The Australian dollar is legal tender in its external territories: [[Christmas Island]], [[Cocos (Keeling) Islands]], and [[Norfolk Island]]; and is also official currency in [[Kiribati]], [[Nauru]], and [[Tuvalu]]. It was legal tender in [[Papua New Guinea]] until 31 December 1975 when it was replaced by the [[Papua New Guinean kina|kina]], and in [[Solomon Islands]] until 1977 when it was replaced by the [[Solomon Islands dollar]].