Australian And New Zealand Coins, How Far Back Can We Go - First Edition

1938 is an easy year for New Zealand, nothing!

It seemed that 1933 - 37 had produced enough coins and we took a breath. 1939 as you saw was sparse too and full issuing resumed in 1940 with additions!

1938 in Australia saw the roll out of the new Kruger Grey obverses on the coinage. All of the coins except the sixpence switched to new designs. The sixpence kept the 1910 W.H.Blakemore design of the coat of arms.

The Halfpenny did not see its makeover until 1939, with 1938 Halfpennies using the old words design.


Penny (gVF), Shilling (close to VF) and Florin (aEF)



The new coins had the following designs
Bronze - Kangaroos
3d - Ears of wheat and a connecting ribbon
1/- Head of a woolly merino sheep
2/- A modernised coat of arms
5/- A depiction of an imperial crown (First issued in 1937)

The Crown was again issued in 1938, but with only 100k this time - the coin is scarce and many fakes abound. It was not a success (Too large) and was scrapped the next year. The government did not give up and tried to release a 5/- note in 1939, it was not carried out but patterns exist.

I don't have a halfpenny, 3d, 6d or crown from 1938 sorry.

My coins are decent, the penny was a bulk find and it has some deep lustre left and minimal wear. The Florin is a nice piece and the shilling is decent.

No coins were issued properly in Australia in 1937, except the Crown.

Everyone has a full set of 1938 coins of New Zealand.

Just like we have a 1932 set of NZ coins

Seriously, my Florin thread has been updated with NEW purchases.

Triggersmob and Princetane - do you know why the reverse of the Australian sixpence was never redesigned for George VI? When you see all the coins together you realise it looks old-fashioned and out-of-place with the different font on the lettering. Was there ever any plan to change it?

Special Feature: Coins in the Pacific
1. Fijian Pound





Besides being used in Australia and New Zealand, these coinages were used in many Pacific Island colonies, apart from several French ones and a couple of American and even a Chilean territory (Rapa Nui, Easter Island) - The Pacific Ocean was a British lake up to the 1960s!

Coins above are of the Fijian Pound. This currency was set up in 1934 and used in Fiji, British New Hebrides to 1938 (Vanuatu - also used New Caledonian Franc) and most likely Tonga as well. Previous to 1934 Fiji was using the NZ and British pounds.
The Fijian Pound was the 3rd major currency in this region after the Australian and NZ pounds and Fiji was the only Island group with a large population (about 400k in 1940) and it also had a large non indigenous population (Indian, Chinese and a few thousand White mostly British and Austro/Kiwi).


Fijian coins also had holes in the cupronickel Pennies and Halfpence. The designs featured local scenes

3d - Bure (12 sided brass like UK from 1947)
6d - Sea Turtle
1/- Kamakua (Fijian Outrigger vessel)
2/- Coat of Arms (all designs by Percy Metcalfe)

Fiji also used Crowned portraits of George VI and Elizabeth being a colony. They switched to decimal currency only in 1969, the latest in the Pacific too. Decimal coins were uncrowned effigies (Machin).


Crowned effigies as all colonial coins had, only "White" dominions got an uncrowned portrait.

Fijian coins were like NZ for the 6d, 1/- and 2/- being 50% silver to 1946 and cupro nickel afterwards. Pennies and Halfpence were cupronickel from 1934 to 1968. The Threepence was a 12 sided brass coin issued only from 1947 to 1968.

3. Zones of Influence

As many of the Pacific Islands were tiny and had small populations, making coinages for them all seemed ridiculous. Plu before WW2 most natives had little use for money and only in the 1950s were they further integrated into the Cash world.

These colonies were all part of the British Empire/Commonwealth - but were given to Australia and New Zealand to administer and as a result used their currencies. Here is a basic list.

1. Australian Pound



Australia

Norfolk Island

Cocos and Keeling (Although in 1910s Clunie Ross issued tokens in the decimal rupee of Ceylon and Seychelles, and the Malayan dollar was used in this location and Christmas Island)

Christmas Island(Only to 1958 and after 1968 used Aussie dollar)

Papua and New Guinea to 1935 and from 1952 onwards
(Includes New Britain, Bougainville, Torres Strait etc)

Papua 1935 - 1944 (Solely)

Nauru

Solomon Islands

Tuvalu (Ellice Islands)

Kiribati (Gilbert Islands)

New Zealand (Bronze 1911 - 1939 and some silver coins to 1920)

2. New Zealand Pound




New Zealand

Chatham Islands

Niue (From 1903)

Cook Islands (From 1901)

Western Samoa (From 1915 when taken from Germany)

Tokelau (From 1948)

Tonga (Possibly used with Fijian Pound)

Fiji (1933 - 1934)

3. British Pound - Pound sterling



All of the South Pacific including Australia and NZ to 1910

New Zealand to 1933 (Bronze to 1940) - solely 1920 - 1933 as the British pound debased in 1920 and the Australian coins did not, meaning that they were too precious here.
The period 1910 - 1920 was Australian and British pounds, pre 1910 solely British pound in NZ.

Fiji to 1933

Tonga to 1934

Western Samoa (As a trade currency to 1915 and solely until 1933)

Cook Islands and Niue to 1933

Nauru to 1917

Gilbert and Ellice Islands until 1917, less offically to 1948 for Union Islands (Tokelau)

Pitcairn Island right through, although they did use NZ currency at times as well.

4. Other currencies

US Dollar - Micronesia, Marshall Islands, American Samoa (Mostly 1898 for AS and 1915/1942 onwards for others)

Chilean Peso, Peruvian Sol - used in Tokelau, Samoa, New Hebrides, Solomons, Nauru and other islanders where "Blackbirders" operated in the 1800s. These were unscrupulous Hispanics who harvested islands of men to dig bird guano on islands off South America for nitrate and later Queenslanders who harvested "Kanaks" for sugar cane plantations. Blackbirding ended in 1906.

Most blackbirding was basically slavery and islands like Niue, Tokelau and Tana took a long time to recuperate. Some blackbirders offered unfair contracts which paid low sums for labour and workers were kept in appalling conditions (say 10/- for 3 months work or 1 Peso a month)

German Marks - Used in German Island colonies between 1870s and 1915 - German Samoa, Deutsch Neu Guinea, Karolinen and Marschall Inseln, Nauru.

Japanese yen - used in Caroline, Bonin, Guam, Marshall islands and much of Micronesia peacefully 1919 - 1940 as Japan was an ally in WW1 and got these Islands as a thank you!

WW2 also saw the Japanese yen used in these places along with New Guinea, Solomons and other Micronesian locations with occupation (Banana) money.

French Francs - Used in New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia - this was not reformed in 1960 and thus these currencies survive today as New Caledonian Franc and French Polynesian Franc. The New Hebrides Gold Franc, became a standard Franc in 1976 and the Vatu in 1983.


Next back to the coins of 1937!

1937

Well this will be an easy year for me.

NZ


AUS.


That's it from me.

Steve :)

New Zealand on the other hand had no need to issue silver crowns or plan new designs - the designs were just 4 years old and still looked pretty modern in 1937.

What we got was all 5 coins with a splendid uncrowned effigy of his new majesty. This uncrowned effigy was designed by Humphrey Paget (The crowned one was Percy Metcalfe).



It would not be a Princetane post without a juicy half crown and florin. This time they are just mid VF for Halfcrown and bare VF for Florin, but still nice and shiny (VF goes a long way with NZ silver coins!)



Another very nice shilling (gVF and only $15) and a VF 3d are surrounding the usual worn sixpence. Coinage numbers in 1937 were moderate rather than the huge numbers of 1933 and 1934, but much more than the sparse years of 1935 and 1936.

NZ's gain in 1937 was their loss in 1938 when the Australians issued all their coins, while we issued nothing. Sadly black staining is a part of life with silvercopper coins in humid Auckland in February.



Tomorrow we got back to King George V! I can't wait as he is my favourite monarch on coins as you all learnt during the 6th edition of HFBCWG last year.

Princetane - thanks for your theory about the Australian 6d, and for your interesting information on Pacific Island currencies!

I also have a 1937 Australian crown: