“LEND me a royal.”
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It just doesn’t have the same ring to it as “lend me a dollar”, according to Bathurst coin collector Alan McRae.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the introduction of decimal currency on February 14, 1966, Mr McRae joked that we almost had royals, rather than dollars.
A variety of other names were also put forward for the new currency during a public naming competition, according to The Perth Mint Australia.
Among them were names including the emu, koala, digger, oz, boomer, roo, kanga, kwid and dinkum.
The federal government’s decision to introduce new currency to replace the old pounds, shillings and pence was a long time in the making, according to Mr McRae.
But, once the decision was made, what to call this new currency was a hot topic of debate.
“I recall the hullabaloo about what the new decimal coins would be called,” Mr McRae said.
He also recalls being at school at the time and his class was given an exercise to come up with a new name for the currency. His was ‘Silver’.
The introduction of a new currency also required a huge education campaign for the public, businesses and banks.
A well-known radio advertisement about the new currency leading up to the changeover was sung to the tune of Click Go The Shears.
“In come the dollars, in come the cents, to replace the pounds, the shillings and the pence, so be prepared when the money starts to mix on the 14th of February 1966.”
Bathurst man Trevor Rich, who was an accountant for Bathurst Motors at the time, remembers the changeover to decimal currency.
He was 23 years old and remembers many people were concerned in the lead up to the day.
“You didn’t look forward to it, it’d be a hassle for a while,” he said of the new currency.
Mr Rich said that for many people, including himself, it felt like costs had gone up.
“The difficult part of the changeover was if you had something that was three pounds and then in dollars, it was seven. You had to convert it back,” he said.
But he said once it was converted people realised that prices had not gone up at all.
“It felt like everything had gone up in price and it took a while to get used to,” he said.
“It’s probably like when the GST was introduced.”