50 years since cents replaced pence

It’s the golden anniversary of New Zealand’s switch to decimal currency, but getting it into our hands, wallets and purses wasn’t a straightforward process.

The government had decided to get rid of pounds, shilling and pence back in 1963, setting the changeover date four years ahead: 10 July 1967.

It’s doubtful that back then the coins in people’s pocket would end up at a museum, but that’s exactly what’s happened at the research centre at Puke Ariki museum in Taranaki.

‘‘It was a big upheaval at the time but amazing that a booklet at in a museum now captures just what a big change this was,’’ Puoarahi Tukuihotanga/ Heritage Collections lead Andrew Moffat said.

‘‘The change was central to the development of our national identity and showed the world that, while we retained strong links with Britain, our identity was more than colonial,’’ Ministry for Culture and Heritage chief historian Neill Atkinson said.

‘‘The announcement of the change was made by the National Government in 1963 and then under-secretary for finance and future Prime Minister Rob Muldoon was given the task of overseeing it.’’

But the change over wasn’t a straightforward process by any means.

‘‘There was much public discussion over what to name the new currency and while many names were suggested - ’crown’, ‘fern’, ‘tu¯i’, ‘Kiwi’ and ‘zeal’, eventually New Zealand followed Australia and settled on the dollar. Atkinson said.

‘‘The government then published all the proposed designs, and got the public to vote on them.’’

Designs by London-born New Zealander James Berry emerged as the public favourite and in 1966 the government, following the public mood, chose Berry for all six new coins.

The six coins chosen were in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents.

The notes, the first New Zealand paper money to show the reigning monarch were kept under wraps until June 1967 to thwart counterfeiters.

The $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $100 banknotes each had different native birds and plants on the reverse, and were distinguishable by colour.

Their design featured complicated geometric patterns and included Ma¯ori iconography.

Once all the debate and designing stopped the new money had to be made – 27 million new banknotes and 165 million new coins had to be minted and distributed in time for the change-over.

Banks closed from Wednesday 5 July until Monday 10 July to give bank staff time to convert their records into dollars and cents.

The new money was valued at $120 million and weighed more than 700 tonnes and any old money was then disposed of in a furnace.

One of the lesser known facts about the transition to decimal currency was that In 1967 plans were floated to produce a onedollar coin.

While the dollar coin never actually went into circulation at the time it was introduced 24 years later in 1991 albeit with a different design and accompanied by a series of television advertisements to introduce the concept to the public.