Pre Decimal Currency in Australia

Australia changed to a decimal based currency system on the 14th February 1966. The pre decimal system was based on the British currency system of which the main unit was the pound (£), which was divided into twenty shillings, and one shilling was divided into 12 pence.

Monetary amounts were written as a combination of pounds, shillings, and pence, with each value seperated by a slash, with zero values written with a dash instead of a zero. Pounds were written with a prefix "£", and values less then a shilling with the suffix "d".

There were some irregularities in usages to what one may expect.

In monetray values the plural of penny is pence
Penny values were spoken and spelt as one word - twopence
Twopence was pronounced tuppence
Threepence was pronounced throopence
Half a penny, halfpenny, was pronounced haypnee

Examples

"Threepence" would be written 3d
"Sixpence and halfpenny" would be written 6½d
"Two and six" meaning two shillings and 6 pence and would be written 2/6
"One shilling" would be written 1/-
"One pound ten" would be written £1/10/-
"Two pounds six and twopence halfpenny" would be written £2/6/2½
"Ten pounds" would be written £10/-/- or £10

Currency Notes and Coins

Coins 1910-1964

Gold

£1 Sovereign
10/- Half Sovereign

Silver

5/- Crown (King George VI commemorative 1937-1938)
2/- Florins
1/- Shillings
6d Sixpence
3d Threepence

Bronze

1d Penny
½d Halfpence

Coins in 1901

£1 Sovereign
10/- Half Sovereign
5/- Crown
2/6 Half Crown
2/- Florins
1/- Shillings
6d Sixpence
3d Threepence
1d Penny
½d Halfpence
¼d Farthing (quarter penny)

Notes in 1901

10 pounds
5 pounds
1 pound
10 shillings