Funny Money

It may be just a collection of 'funny money', but plastic coins like these played a part in a big change in New Zealand’s currency.

The coins, which have decimal denominations on one side with matching Imperial equivalents on the other, were thought to have been used as a teaching tool as New Zealand moved to decimal currency on 10 July 1967.

While some advocated calling our new currency the “kiwi” or the “zeal”, as most people still associated dollars with American currency, the dollar was selected as the name, which was then promoted by “Mr Dollar”, a jaunty cartoon dollar with a bow tie and cane who urged people in 1966 not to “shed a tear in July next year for cumbersome pounds and pence.”