Can Someone Explain The Units In Aussie Coins?

Okay here's one for you - can anybody tell me the value of these coins converted into modern Australian currency? I know 1 shilling equals 10 cents, but what would it be equivalent to?

What would 5 shillings in 1820 be translated to in terms of actual worth in 2011?

HC: welcome !
there are websites that purport to give equivalents from one era to another. They seem meaningless to me. Patterns of consumption have altered.

For example, in 1820, a family's expendiure was as follows -
electricity, 'phone bills - NIL
petrol - NIL
tickets to the cinema - NIL
PCs, laptops, and computer discs - NIL; etc

Balancing that, income tax was zero.

For a broadstroke comparison, I use the Harvester Judgement of Justice HIGGINS in 1907, which set the "basic wage" for a man supporting a non-working wife and three children was 42 shillings per week. see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvester_Judgment

Diggers who signed up during 1914~18 were paid ... 42 shillings per week.
Diggers who signed up in 1939 were also paid 42 shillings per week, but it was increased soon after.

When the Overland Telegraph was completed in 1872, a telegram from Melbourne to London cost 10s6d per word.

In 1820, as I read the history of England in that era, prices and wages were volatile. Which is why there were two attempts at revolution in England, and another in Scotland, that year. Other periods were more stable.

1820 is a favourite year of mine: I have put together a set of English coins circulating in that year, linking my coin collecting with my study of history.

Peter in Darwin

Just to explain a little further...

Aussies and Brits share a bit of language and many of the lang terms for the predecimals were univerally used between the two countries...but in London we went one step further with terms that are still occasionally used now but localised to the East End of London and places like snooker halls. These terms use rhyming slang which is hard to follow if you arent accustomed to it. This came about from the workers of the shipyards not wanting the foriegners to understand what they were saying and also from criminals not wanting the police or strangers to understand what they were talking about.

The money terms survive and have more popular usage than the rest of the slang (though some of it is widely understood)

£1, a quid, a nicker (an Alan Wikker)
£5, a jacks (jacks alive=five)
£10, a cockle (cockle and hen=ten)
£20 an apple (an apple core=score=20)
£25 a pony
£40 a bazil (Bazil Fawty)
£50 a bullseye (worth 50 in darts)
£100 a tonne
£300 a carpet (after 3 years in jail they give you a carpet in your cell)
£500 a monkey
£1000 a long'un, a grand or a bag (bag of sand=grand)

In the decimal note you sometimes here these

a $10 is a Heelers
a $20 is a Lobster or a Redback
a $50 note is a Pineapple
a $100 is a Bradman or an Avocado

Not sure if these terms are regional or not. Lobster, Pineapple and Avocado were common in QLD - Brisbane in the mid to late 90's

regarding $50 - this morning, a friend sent me this quiz - Q.10 refers to the money matter.
http://media.news.com.au/multimedia.../oz_quiz.swf
and by the way - "You're a dead-set legend 23/25" - but I reckon the other two were ambiguous ...

The 4 pence coin was called a Groat, and was never used in Australia as far as I am aware.
http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/fourd.html