Alan's information pages on old currency

New Zealand's change to decimal currency

As many of our 'not so old generation' have little or no knowledge of what currency we used before our change to decimal, I thought it worth documenting at least a little on the previously used system.

The currency used in New Zealand from the early years was brought out from England and consisted of Pounds, shillings and pence sterling. The symbol for the English pound is £
and a Pound was shown as £1.0.0 (1 Pound, no shillings and no pence).
The 'Pound' ( £) consisted of 20 shillings [240 pennies].
A 'Guinea' was 21 shillings (one pound one shilling).
CONVERSION
At the time of changeover on 10th July 1967 the following was the direct conversion from Sterling to Decimal currency in New Zealand.

One shilling became 10 cents.

A ten shilling note became a $1.00 note, the £1.0.0 became $2.00) and so on.

Description of the coins used	Sterling Coin	Decimal Coin
A 'half crown' was 2 shillings and six pence, shown as 2/6 or 2/6d. [30 pence] No decimal equivalent. However, the 50 cent coin shown on the right of the half crown was worth 5 shillings.
A 'Florin' was two shillings. [24 pence] The decimal equivalent was 20 cents.
A 'Shilling' consisted of [12 pence] (or pennies). Also written as 1/- and sometimes called a 'bob'. The decimal equivalent is 10 cents.
Sixpence also written as 6d [6 pence] The decimal equivalent was 5 cents
Threepence also written as 3d. Often pronouced as 'thrup-pence'. [3 pence] The approximate decimal equivalent was 2 cents.
One penny also written as 1d. [1 penny] The decimal equivalent was 1 cent.
In earlier times there were also halfpennies [1/2 penny], and farthings [1/4 penny]. The pronunciation of the half penny was 'hay-penny' or 'hape-nee'. There was no decimal equivalent as these coins had long since ceased to be legal tender.
One and two dollars coins. Introduced when $1.00 and $2.00 notes were withdrawn.
So from all this you will see that:- £3.15.11 equals 3 pounds, fifteen shillings and eleven pence. A shilling was a 'bob' and ten shillings was ten 'bob' (a ten bob note), a pound was often referred to a a 'quid'. The old coins were still legal tender for a number of years with the exception of pennies and threepenny coins. NOTE: Pennies and threepences were no longer legal tender after the changeover but could be exchanged at banks for a period. The one and two cent coins were later withdrawn from use (30th April 1990).