History of Australian Coins #
Pre-1770: The First Australians did not use money as we know it; they used a barter system, trading goods from one end of Australia to the other.
1778: The British sent the First Fleet to Australia to set up a penal colony. Most of the first coins used in Australia came from the pockets of the officers, sailors, and convicts who settled in Australia. These coins included English sovereigns, shillings and pence; Spanish reales; Indian rupees and Dutch guilders.
1800: As the Australian population grew, a proper money system was needed. Governor King tried to solve the problem by making a proclamation, fixing the value of all of the different coins in the colony. These became known as the ‘Proclamation Coins’.
1813: The British Government decided to send 40,000 Spanish dollars to the colony. Governor Macquarie asked a convict named William Henshall to punch a round piece out of each of the Spanish dollars. This almost doubled the number of coins – producing ‘holey dollars’ and ‘dumps’.
1825: English Parliament passed the ‘Stirling Silver Money Act’ which officially made British coins the only recognised form of currency in Australia.
1849: The first gold discovery in Australia was in Victoria in January 1849, and by 1851 the life of the colony had been disrupted because of the gold rush.
1852: While Australia was waiting for a mint, people were making up their own rules about how to turn their gold into money.
1910: A decade after federation, Australian coins were introduced.
1966: Australia adopted the decimal system with the Australian dollar divided into 100 cents.
1984: The one-dollar coin was introduced, replacing the one-dollar note.
1988: The two-dollar coin was introduced, replacing the two-dollar note.
1996: Australia became the first country in the world to have a complete series of circulating polymer (plastic) notes which are more durable and harder to counterfeit than paper notes.
2012: The Royal Australian Mint started producing coins with color. The Remembrance Day $2 was the first circulating coin with color.
2016: The Royal Australian Mint released the world’s first triangular coin to mark the 25th anniversary of the opening of Parliament House.
2020-2023: The Royal Australian Mint continued to release commemorative coins and innovate in their designs and materials.