In 2016 the Royal Australian Mint released a full set of six pieces to
commemorative
fifty years since the introduction of decimal currency
in Australia. The obverse of each of these pieces includes an internal
Australian pre-decimal coin design underneath an Ian Rank-Broadley
portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II. This twenty cent piece includes the Kruger Gray ram's head design as was featured on the
Australian Shillings after 1937. The obverselegend
states "ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA 2016 FIFTY YEARS". The reverse features
the standard fifty cent coat of arms design by Stuart Devlin.
The Australian pound came into being in 1910 and lasted until 1966. The currency was awkward, with each pound being subdivided
into 20 shillings each of 12 pence. In the 1950s the economic importance of switching to a decimal currency became heavily
discussed. The key argument was that the pound made financial transactions unnecessarily difficult, it was calculated that
this difficulty caused the loss of more than £11 million to the Australian economy every year. After much political debate
the 14th of February 1966 was chosen as Changeover Day - when the new Australian decimal dollar took over.
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