Australian pound

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Australian Pound
1910 to February 14, 1966
Country: AustraliaAustralia Australia
Subdivision: 20 shillings
240 pence
ISO 4217 code : AUP
Abbreviation: AU £, £
Exchange rate :
(fixed)

1 AUD = 0.5 AUP
1 AUP = 2 AUD

The Australian pound ( English Australian pound ; AUP) was from 1910 until the changeover to the Australian dollar (AUD) in the year 1966, the valid national currency in Australia . Like the British pound , the Australian pound was divided into 20 shillings of 12 pence each.

history

Predecessor currencies

The monetary history of Australia begins around 1800, with a proclamation by the then Governor Philip Gidley King , which determined the value of several foreign coins in New South Wales . Due to the general shortage of money, however, the actual currency in the first 25 years of settlement history was rum , which led to the terms Rum Corps and Rum Rebellion .

The first Australian coins were introduced in the colony of New South Wales in 1813. This was a coin called the Spanish dollar ( real de a 8 ), from which the center was punched out, creating two coins: a small coin called the dump in Australia ; and the ring-shaped holey dollar . A holey dollar was worth five shillings (a quarter of a pound sterling ) and a dump was worth a quarter holey dollar , which is one shilling and three pence. The aim of the perforation was to keep the coins in New South Wales, as this would render them worthless elsewhere.

In 1825 an order-in-council was issued with the aim of introducing sterling coins into all British colonies . The reasons for this were the introduction of the gold standard in the United Kingdom in 1816 and a decline in the availability of Spanish dollars, as most of these dollars were minted in Lima , Mexico City and Potosí , which had become part of the newly established Latin American republics and thus independent of Spain.

canceled £ 20 banknote from the City Bank of Sydney

With the establishment of the first bank in 1817, the Bank of New South Wales , private banks began issuing pound- denominated paper money . In 1852 the Government Assay Office in Adelaide began issuing pound gold coins, which were a little heavier than the British sovereign . Three years were from the later Mint in Sydney issued Sovereigns and Halbsovereigns and 1872, the coin began production in Melbourne. Originally, some of the production was intended for India as part of a plan to enforce the gold sovereign as an imperial coin. However, it turned out that in India the rupee was already too ingrained. The gold sovereigns delivered to India never came into circulation there.

The pound as the national currency

Until the founding of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, British silver and copper coins, gold sovereigns minted in Australia, locally minted copper coins, private banknotes and notes from the British colony of Queensland were in circulation. Decorated in January 1901 in Melbourne Commonwealth Treasury , the Treasury of the Commonwealth of Australia, was commissioned in 1910 with the Australian Notes Act, the Australian pound as the nation's only valid currency for the Commonwealth of Australia to implement and enforce them. Private banks have been banned from circulating Queensland notes that have ended their legal tender status. In the same year, the Bank Notes Tax Act introduced a tax of 10% p. a. raised on the private banknotes and thus devalued economically.

The gold peg of the Australian pound was lifted at the beginning of the First World War . In 1925 an attempt was made to return to the gold standard within the British Empire . In 1929 Australia abandoned the gold standard as part of emergency measures during the Great Depression , which led to a devaluation against the pound sterling. The sterling bloc (sterling area) was the subsequent association of states that aligned their currency to the pound sterling. It was founded in 1931 when the pound countries separated their currency from gold and is one of the first currency unions.

During the Second World War there was a currency produced by the occupying power of Japan in what was then the Australian territory of Papua , also denominated as the Australian pound.

From July 1 to July 22, 1944, 44 states gathered in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire , to discuss the reorganization of the weakened world economy as a result of the Second World War. Important currency, trade and payment issues should be raised for discussion. As a result of the meeting, the International Monetary Fund was established, which Australia joined in 1947. The US dollar was defined as the international reserve, currency and transaction currency and thus became the base unit for converting into gold (US $ 35 / ounce). Fixed exchange rates for other currencies were also set.

Sixpence from 1951.
Halfpenny and Penny from 1960.

Replacement by the dollar

In 1963 the Australian government decided to replace the English coin system with a decimal system and to issue a new series of banknotes. The new decimal currency was introduced on February 14, 1966, and according to this plan, the currency was decimalized on February 14, 1966 and replaced by the Australian dollar . The exchange ratio was set at two dollars for one pound (1 pound = 2 dollars, 10 shillings = 1 dollar and 1 shilling = 10 cents). Problems arose with converting pence into the new decimal currency. Because the shilling was divided into twelve pence, only an exchange rate of $ 2.40 per pound would have allowed the correct conversion down to the penny.

For example, amounts less than one shilling were converted as follows:

Pence Accurate conversion Actual conversion   Pence Accurate conversion Actual conversion
½ d 512 ¢ 0.417 ¢ 6½ d 5 512 ¢ 5 ¢
1 d 56 ¢ 0.83 ¢ 7 d 5 56 ¢ 6 ¢
1½ d 1 14 ¢ 1.25 ¢ 7½ d 6 14 ¢ 6 ¢
2 d 1 23 ¢ 2 ¢ 8 d 6 23 ¢ 7 ¢
2½ d 2 112 ¢ 2 ¢ 8½ d 7 112 ¢ 7 ¢
3 d 2 12 ¢ 2 ¢ 9 d 7 12 ¢ 8 ¢
3½ d 2 1112 ¢ 3 ¢ 9½ d 7 1112 ¢ 8 ¢
4 d 3 13 ¢ 3 ¢ 10 d 8 13 ¢ 8 ¢
4½ d 3 34 ¢ 4 ¢ 10½ d 8 34 ¢ 9 ¢
5 d 4 16 ¢ 4 ¢ 11 d 9 16 ¢ 9 ¢
5½ d 4 712 ¢ 5 ¢ 11½ d 9 712 ¢ 9 ¢
6 d 5 ¢ 5 ¢ 12 d 1 s = 10 ¢ 1 s = 10 ¢

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Our Department. ( Memento of July 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Australian Government. The Treasury. Subpage: About Treasury, Our Department. , 2017, accessed January 14, 2017.
  2. ^ A New Currency: 1900-1920. Preparing the way. In: Reserve Bank of Australia. Museum. Bottom: Displays, A New Currency: 1900–1920. , 2017, accessed January 14, 2017.
  3. Picker, Anne Dolganos: International Economic Indicators and Central Banks. 2007, Wiley Finance, ISBN 978-0471751137 , p. 91
  4. The Commonwealth Bank and the note issue: 1920–1960 ( Memento from April 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. "World Bank: Bretton Woods Conference" Accessed 6 August 2011
  6. ^ "Federal Agency for Civic Education: World Currency System". Accessed on August 6, 2011