This information and the links that follow are provided with the permission of Jon Saxon and
John Mulhalll editor of the AUSTRALIAN Coin & Banknote Magazine
The links at the bottom of this page are also provided with permission from Jon Saxon & John Mulhall
Predecimal History of Commonwealth coinage
Prior to Australian federation, the British colonies in Australia used a variety of coinage, promissory notes and tokens as currency. Some gold coinage, sovereigns and half-sovereigns, had been made in the Royal Mint branches in Sydney and Melbourne but from earliest times there was a lack of small-denomination coins. In 1898 the British government granted permission for the colonial governments of New South Wales and Victoria to strike both silver and bronze coins in the branch mints of Sydney and Melbourne but it was not until well after federation that the decision to proceed was announced. The local mints in Sydney and Melbourne had been striking gold sovereigns and half-sovereigns but were not prepared to cope with the new currency and for the first few years Australian coins were ordered from the Royal Mint in London.
With the outbreak of World War I the Royal Mint found itself unable to meet the demand for Australian coins in addition to its other commitments and in 1914 and 1915 some of the production was sub-contracted to the mint of Heaton & Sons in Birmingham. By 1916 the Melbourne branch mint was equipped for the striking of silver coins and so it assumed that task, but bronze coins were struck in Calcutta ( India) branch mint as well as at the Heaton mint. In 1919 the first pennies were struck in Melbourne and the first halfpennies were struck in Sydney.
The monetary system of Australia prior to the introduction of decimal currency
Before 1966 Australia used a monetary system directly inherited from Britain. The principal currency unit was the pound (£) which was divided into twenty shillings each comprising 12 pence. Monetary amounts less than a shilling were expressed with the suffix 'd' so that threepence would be written 3d and fivepence halfpenny would be written 5½d. For larger amounts, the denominations were separated by virgules or slashes. "Fifteen and six" (meaning fifteen shillings and six pence) was written as 15/6 but amounts comprising even shillings had a dash in place of the zero so "one shilling" was written as 1/-rather than 1/0. The principle was extended to larger amounts. For example, "Six pounds four and twopence halfpenny" was written as £6/4/2½, "one pound ten [shillings]" as £1/10/- and "Ten pounds" as £10/-/- or simply £10. Finally, "two pounds and tenpence" would be written as £2/-/10 and rarely, if ever, as £2/0/10.
Penny is singular regardless of usage. When talking about individual coins, the plural is pennies but for monetary value, pence is the plural so two pennies have a combined value of twopence. Penny amounts were always spoken and spelled as a single word, "eleven pence" rather than "eleven pence". "Twopence" was always pronounced "tuppence" and "threepence" as "throopence" ("oo" is as in "book"). Finally, "halfpenny" was never pronounced as written but always as "haypnee" (and sometimes it was actually written as "ha'penny").
General characteristics of Australian pre-decimal coins
Compared with many other countries, Australian pre-decimal coins are somewhat unusual in that the reverse is the more definitive side of the coin. For example, all Australian Commonwealth coins have the date on the reverse whereas in the U.S.A. the date is on the obverse. Australian coins are invariably packaged and displayed with the reverse more prominent than the obverse. (The decimal coins in use since 1966 have the date on the obverse, diminishing the importance of the reverse side.)
It is extremely common for the obverse of Australian coins to show more wear than the reverse, particularly on the silver coins. For this reason, you will often see coins with grades such as F/VF and EF/aU whereas grades such as EF/VF are most unusual.
The George V coins had high-relief designs and on uncirculated coins some parts of the design were higher than the rim. This had two effects. Firstly, the higher points wore quickly and the wear profile provides a wealth of grading markers. Secondly, there was a tendency for the early coins to show "weak strikes" on certain features. This is particularly noticeable on the pennies where the N in ONE is directly behind the highest point of George V's effigy and on the early shillings and sixpences where the headband of George's crown is often ill-defined. For the same reason, the Federation Star above the shield on the reverse of the silver coins is often somewhat flat. The effect is that some coins can appear worn, even though they are uncirculated.
Addditional information from Jon can be found at http://www.triton.vg/ozcoins.html
Jons articles:
Small Change - part 1 - "Small Changes"
Small Change - part 2 - "Plasticine Numismatics"
The Australian Copper Coins of 1920"