Editing Australian dollar (section)

=== 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]].