Can Someone Explain The Units In Aussie Coins?

Okay, so what are the slang names for the coins?

Same as the slang terms in Britain except for the zac? What about the threepence? Surely that's a joey? Then you have the "thrupney bit" which in it's plural version is rhyming slang!

I was discussing this with my British friend the other day - how confused I was over the values of British coins - they're pretty close to Australian.

What I realized quickly was that the British purposely defined the coins in terms of other coins explicitly and solely to confuse us "a-mer-kin far-ners" ;) I don't know if that's wholely true, but it seemed a fun tongue in cheek joke they had on us. When the Brits went to the newpence, of course, some of the mystery was solved HOWEVER...

I also figured out that, in terms of American money - especially the decimal denominations - it's actually somewhat simple:

Nancy, I'm borrowing your list here and making my own modifications - if I get it wrong, please whack me upside the head and I'll promise to try not to do it again. =)

IF the pound were equivalent to the dollar (which of course, in value it is not but especially under 20, it's buying power I've found is pretty similar, day-to-day), THEN

10 pounds - 10 quid - a tenner ~ roughly equivalent to a tenspot or a $10 bill
5 pounds - 5 quid - a fiver ~ similar to above
1 pound - a quid ~ a buck
1 Guinea - 1 Pound + 1 shilling ~ there isn't an American equivalent, but I was told the guinea is used in auctions and the auction house or auctioneer got the extra five percent as commission
10/- - Ten shillings - 10 bob ~ half a pound - American equiv: Half-Dollar (50 Cent Piece)
2/6 - Half a crown - two & six ~ no American equivalent
5/- A Crown - 5 shillings - 5 bob ~ 1/4th of a Pound - Am equiv: a Quarter
2/- Two shilling - a florin - two bob ~ a Florin or 1/10th of a Pound - Am equiv: a Dime
1/- one shiling - a bob - dinar ~ 1/20th of a pound - Am equiv: a Nickel
6d - sixpence - a zac - a tanner ~ no Am equiv
3d - threepence - thrupence - a trey ~ no modern American equivalent
1d - 1 penny ~ same in American - a Penny or One Cent
½d - halfpenny - hap'ney

This doesn't mention farthings (960 to the pound) or groats (4 pence), I guess they don't have those in Oz.

I'm about to try to learn more about Australian coins as I get into that part of the collection, but I hope that knowing there are common "equivalents" for the terms

"Crown" (quarter), "Florin" (dime), and "Shilling" (nickel)

help to ease frustrations and straighten out some confusion! It certainly worked for me! =)

The pound and dollar are much closer to parity these days than they historically were. Up to 1949, there were about US$4 to the pound, so all of your "equivalent denominations" are too high for most of the time period these old currency units were in use. The crown, for instance, was a silver coin slightly larger than a US dollar, and a shilling was a silver coin slightly smaller than a quarter.

However, your numerical conversions (shilling = 0.05, florin = 0.10, 10 shillings = 0.50) were the numbers used when Britain went decimal in 1971; the shilling became 5 new pence, and so forth. So you're not too far wrong in that respect.

The Australian pound was pegged to the British pound at a fixed rate of AU£1/5/- = GB£1. So even though our coins contained better quality silver, they were worth less than their British counterparts in terms of foreign exchange. This was a deliberate policy of the Australian government, to keep our exports cheap and attractive. In 1967, shortly after switching to the dollar, we pegged the currency to the US dollar instead of the British pound.



Certainly people born under the predecimal monetary system were taught it and knew how to use it, though the slang words (like two bob, deener and trey) would never have been formally taught to them; those would be picked up from friends and family.

It's been over 40 years since the predecimal money was withdrawn. Kids in Australia today would have no idea what sixpences, shillings and florins are. Just like they have no idea what inches, gallons or ounces are.

Right - I was just trying to show that relative to the pound, they're actually denominations that make sense to even us Americans - just with another name. =) When I think of it that way, it makes a lot more sense to me than trying to remember it the way it is most commonly explained!

I can back up the lack of understanding of the olde system - my friend, in his mid-thirties - who I was trying to discuss this with was unable to explain any of it. He handed the phone to his father who tried to confuse me! ;)

Just to add more mud to the waters we now in the UK often use modern slang to refer to denominations along with the older ones:

Ayrton Senna or just Ayrton - tenner (£10) - cockney rhyming slang created in the 90s relating to Brazilian Formula One driver.

Deep sea diver - fiver (£5) - again cockney and 90s, and I think its because the fiver used to be deep blue and green. Bizarrely still sometimes shortened to diver!

Bags of sand - grand (£1000s) - again cockney, five bags of sand = £5000.

Archer - £2000 - the amount Jeffrey Archer MP tried to bribe a call girl with.

Lots of people know what these are now, all of the above were commonplace in my last job.

Many more here (about 1/2 way down the page):

http://www.businessballs.com/moneyslanghistory.htm

Where I live people (not many) even say 'a badger' for £30. No idea where this came from or what it means.

It's up there in one of my posts. You musta missed it.