60th Anniversary of Australian Decimal Currency
By CAA | Sunday, 4 January 2026
Last year, the 60th anniversary of the Royal Australian Mint was celebrated on the annuel dollar coins. This year, the Mint theme is the 60th anniversary of the Australian Decimal Currency.
The 2026 60th anniversary collection combines design elements from all eight of Australia’s standard circulating coins released since 1966, while the packaging celebrates Australia’s historic Changeover Day. On the reverse, there is a possum, a frilled neck lizard, a platypus, a lyre bird, an echidna, a kangaroo, an emu and the Southern Cross constellation. The ribbon design also takes its inspiration from the 50 cents coin.
Australia’s change to decimal currency on 14 February 1966 was not just a change in numbers; it was a cultural shift. Gone were the days of pounds, shillings and pence and their complex calculations. In their place a simple, modern system of dollars and cents.
Schools, businesses and households had to adjust to a new way of counting, and the government launched one of the most memorable public education campaigns in Australian history. Enter Dollar Bill, a friendly cartoon character who popped up on television, posters and pamphlets, explaining the new system. His catchy jingle, Decimal Currency - The Easy Way! was designed to ease fears and help people make the transition smoothly.
In come the dollars and in come the cents, To replace the pounds and the shillings and the pence. Be prepared folks when the coins begin to mix, On the 14th of February 1966.
The lead-up to decimalisation took years of planning. A Decimal Currency Board was established to guide the process, and a nationwide competition was held to choose a name for the new currency.
While quirky suggestions like the austral and royal were floated, in the end dollar won out as the most practical choice. When Changeover Day arrived, it was met with a mix of excitement and trepidation. Shopkeepers and banks braced for confusion, but thanks to extensive public education, the transition was smoother than expected.
Before 1966, Australia used the Australian pound, which followed the British imperial system. It was notoriously difficult to calculate because it wasn't based on 10s:
- 12 pence = 1 shilling
- 20 shillings = 1 pound
(This meant there were 240 pence in a single pound!)
The government wanted a decimal system (dollars and cents) because it made math, accounting, and international trade much simpler.
On C-Day, a fixed conversion rate was set to make the transition fair:
- £1 (One Pound) became $2 (Two Dollars).
- 10 shillings became $1.
- 1 shilling became 10 cents.
The Operation Fastbuck, the secret, high-security logistical mission to distribute Australia’s new decimal currency across the nation in time, involved moving over 600 million coins and 150 million banknotes (totalling roughly $1 billion in value at the time). Much of the new money was minted in London and Canberra, then shipped to a high-security storage facility in Deer Park, Victoria, before being fanned out across the country. The money was moved in heavily armed convoys.
The mint mark on the 2025 uncirculated coins can ben found under the word YEARS the reverse:
- B - Brisbane
- C - Canberra
- M - Melbourne
- S - Sydney
The Mint also celebrated sixty years of Australian decimal currency with a fine silver proof coin and a $10 gold coin.
