Curio

State Library of New South Wales

Australian Notes: the change to Decimal Currency

Australian Notes: the change to Decimal Currency by Gordon Andrews, 1966

Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney

Q655.318/1A1 

Acquired 28 January 1966


MAKING NEW MONEY: 50th ANNIVERSARY OF DECIMAL CURRENCY

In April 1963 the Federal Treasurer announced that Australia would adopt decimal currency. Public opinion determined the new currency would be named the ‘dollar’ with denominations of $1, $2, $10 and $20 to be created for the changeover on 14 February 1966. Four local graphic artists were commissioned to develop sets of completely new currency notes, the only requirement being The Queen’s portrait on the $1. The Mitchell Library’s collection provided sources for many elements of the winning suite of designs by Gordon Andrews. The $1 went into production in April 1965 and, by December, stocks of the four notes had exceeded the 150 million individual notes required for the first issue. The $5 note was issued on 29 May 1967, followed in 1973 by the $50 and the $100 in 1984.


The $2 features (front) John Macarthur (1767–1834) with a portrayal of the Australian wool industry and (back) William James Farrer (1845–1906) with reproductions of modern wheat varieties grown in Australia, based on early portraits of Farrer and Macarthur by unknown artists and/or photographers held in the Mitchell Library. This paper banknote was replaced by a $2 coin in 1988.


The $5 paper banknote was first issued in 1967 and features (front) Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820) with an assemblage of Australian flora and (back) Caroline Chisholm (1808–77) against a portrayal of the women and children of her time, ships and Sydney streets of the period. Sources for the portraits of Sir Joseph Banks and Caroline Chisholm, the Waverley, Sydney Street elevations from Joseph Fowles ‘Sydney in 1848’, the Shipping Gazette title page and handbill for the Family Colonisation Loan Society meeting are held in the Mitchell Library. Banks was a naturalist who sailed with Captain James Cook to Botany Bay in 1770. Chisholm worked to improve conditions for Australia’s first generations of immigrants. 


The $10 paper banknote features (front) Francis Greenway (1777–1837) with an assemblage of his architectural work and (back) Henry Lawson (1867–1922) portrayed against a ground composed of personal letter, manuscripts and photographs of his time. The designs are based on early portraits of Greenway and Lawson held in the Mitchell Library, with architectural details of Greenway buildings photographed by David Moore, copies of Lawson’s manuscripts and photographs of the Mudgee and Gulgong districts from the Holtermann Collection. Lawson iconic poetry captured the mateship and hardship of the Australian goldfields and rural life while Greenway’s buildings still stand in Sydney today.


The $20 paper banknote features (front) Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897–1935) with pendulum tracing symbolic of wings; and (back) Lawrence Hargrave (1850–1915) portrayed with drawings of flying machines and kites. The designs are based on photographs held in the Mitchell Library, Kingsford Smith broke the record for time taken to fly from Sydney to London — 12 days and 18 hours, while Hargrave studied human flight and experimented with models, kites and engines.


The $1 paper banknote features a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the regalia of the Order of the Garter with representations of a Coat of Arms, Aboriginal art based on rock paintings and carvings by indigenous artists and an original bark painting by David Malangi. This paper banknote was replaced by a $1 coin in 1984.