Happy 50th birthday to Dollar Bill

[RooFlyer]

In come the dollars,
In come the cents
To replace the pounds, the shillings and the pence
Be prepared folks, when the coins begin to mix
On the 14th of February 1966 ...

Yep, old Billsy is 50 this Sunday

Who was around then? I remember the day vividly.

I was a 6 yo urchin, walking down the main street of my suburb, with a mate. We were talking about who might get their hands on one of the new coins first!

Suddenly, there in front of us on the footpath was an unimagined, new, crisp, green, $2 bill!

Then another! And another! Altogether we scooped up 5 of them. We were rich!!

Then this Morris Minor pulls in next to us. It was my mate's mum. "Thanks for picking up my money" she said. "I just opened my purse as I was driving along and the wind took it all."

Yeah, a likely story!


BTW, the oldest coin in my pocket right now is a 1973 20 cent coin. What about you?

 

[OATEK]

i was in what we now call Year 10, but then was 4th year of High School. It wasn't terribly difficult as the main purchases were 6d/5c, shilling/10c etc.

We had a lot of preparation at school, but many of the older generation struggled for a period.

I have a few relics of £ s d, including 10 shilling and pound notes, florins, 2 bob, 1 bob, zac etc stored away in an old tin.

 

[drron]

[video=youtube_share;kwA64l5SokU]https://youtu.be/kwA64l5SokU[/video]

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Isn't "Bill" more of an american usage?

 

[medhead]

Isn't "Bill" more of an american usage?

I'm assuming that "dollar bill" is the name of a cartoon character they used to advertise the changes.

Personally I only remember doing Bob a Job, and getting told that cans of coke were 2 bob at hockey club events.

 

[RooFlyer]

Isn't "Bill" more of an american usage?

Click on the link on the first or third posts and all will be explained !

 

[AV8]

[video=youtube_share;kwA64l5SokU]https://youtu.be/kwA64l5SokU[/video]

I can remember this day very clearly even though I was very young attending primary school - we were excited about purchasing items (lollies - cobblers 2 for 1 cent, frogs, musk sticks etc) from the school canteen using the new coins.

 

[coles525]

Wasn't even born then, but totally enjoy the tv commercial (saw it while at the R.A.M once!).

Been in my head ever since!

 

[Major]

I had to work back till about 10 pm changing all the invoices to dollars before being processed on the flexowriter.

 

[Foreigner]

In come the dollars,

BTW, the oldest coin in my pocket right now is a 1973 20 cent coin. What about you?

I have a 1919 florin

 

[RooFlyer]

I have a 1919 florin

In your pocket, now?

 

[opusman]

I wonder why the initial exchange rate was set at $2 = £1. Interesting that this value has more or less persisted (against the GBP) for the past 50 years.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I wonder why the initial exchange rate was set at $2 = £1. Interesting that this value has more or less persisted (against the GBP) for the past 50 years.

Was the Aussie Pound pegged to the GBP back then? As a then 6 year old I did not take note!

 

[RooFlyer]

I wonder why the initial exchange rate was set at $2 = £1. Interesting that this value has more or less persisted (against the GBP) for the past 50 years.

There is a story in Friday's Age (printed) which went into that; apparently there was a plan for a slightly different exchange (I think whether 10 cents equalled 10 pence or a shilling (12 pence). There's an on line version of the story here, but its abbreviated.

And we nearly had 'Royals', not Dollars, thanks to Ming!

 

[Warks]

Born just before then. As a result there was no coin with my birth year - my father collected a set of coins for the birth year of each child but in that year they stopped making the old coins as the new decimal ones were coming in.

I heard a discussion on the possible names for the new currency back then. 'Royals' was widely ridiculed apparently. Another option was the 'austral' but I heard it said that when someone asked for "14 australs" they may have found themselves looking up 20 noses.

Incidentally, australs became the currency of Argentina for a few years in the late 80s.

 

[Julesmac]

My sister went to a little course of talks at her local U3A, all about the people whose pictures were on the banknotes. She said it was fascinating

 

[OATEK]

One Pound

 

[Hvr]

One thing not widely reported is that public transport had a huge role getting the new currency to the public.

Bus and tram conductors (and conductresses to use the sexist vernacular of the period) had their float changed to decimal currency on 14 Feb 1966 and were under strict instruction to only issue the new currency as change for tickets purchased.

The weight of the coins were also relative. E.g. two x 1c coins weighed the same as one x 2c coin and four x 5c weigh the same as two x 10c and one x 20c coin.

This meant that the scales used to weigh large amounts of coins only had three series of numbers (one for the round 50c coin that didn't last long).

Oh and if you have any 1c coins they are the same size as the US dime aka 10c and may even work in US vending machines.

 

[Foreigner]

In your pocket, now?

Must you really know?

 

[RooFlyer]

Must you really know?

No, just relating back to the post I wrote. Never mind.