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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mickey-startup, post: 1048519, member: 27356&quot;]I obtained this C/O an Australian forum. </p><p><br /></p><p>Back in June 1901, one of the first Parliamentary Committees of the new Federal House of Representatives was formed to consider the question of Australia issuing it&#039;s own coinage, as the Constitution permitted. The head of the Committee, George Edwards, was a firm believer in converting Australia to decimal currency and metric weights, and pushed for this concept. </p><p><br /></p><p>The Committee&#039;s final report in April 1902 therefore recommended that Australia adopt a decimal currency, 100 cents to the florin, 10 florins to the pound, a system which British parliamentary committees had also considered for adoption back in Britain. The florin (100 cents), shilling (50 cents) and sixpence (25 cents) easily fit into this decimalized system, but the halfcrown (at 125 cents) and everything threepence (12½ cents) and below did not; a new coinage with denominations of 1, 2, 4, 10, 25, 50 and 100 cents was recommended. </p><p><br /></p><p>Though the report was adopted by parliament in June 1903, along with a recommendation to adopt metric weights and measures, no legislation to implement it was made; the general consensus of parliament was to wait and see if Britain were planning to adopt similar measures. In 1905, they finally got their answer: not only was Britain <b>not</b> planning to go decimal anytime this century, they pointed out that recalling, melting down, re-striking and re-issuing all the coinage then circulating in Australia was going to be costly, and if Australia wanted to do that, Australia was going to have to pay for it themselves. </p><p><br /></p><p>At this, our Parliament balked. Making our own coinage was supposed to be profit-making, not loss-making! </p><p><br /></p><p>So a compromise was reached. Australia would make new coins, but they&#039;d be to the British sterling standard, and would circulate side-by-side with British coins until the British coins could slowly and eventually be withdrawn, at which time we&#039;d be free to do whatever we liked with regard to decimalization. </p><p><br /></p><p>So the Coinage Act 1909 was drafted and passed. The one homage the Act paid to our decimal aspirations was the lack of provision in it for a halfcrown: the only silver denominations permitted under the act were threepence, sixpence, shilling and florin. The Act was amended much later, in 1936, to permit crowns, but halfcrowns were never permitted. </p><p><br /></p><p>Imperial halfcrowns continued to circulate here until British coinage was eventually withdrawn. This happened shortly after 1920, when the fineness of British silver coinage fell to .500 fine. </p><p><br /></p><p>Farthings likewise were never in the Coinage Acts, so were never struck, though British ones did find some use here even after the silver coinage was sent back where it came from. Even in the 1940s and 1950s, stores would hold farthing sales as a gimmick. You&#039;d buy a toaster or whatever for £9/19/11 and 3/4 pence; you&#039;d pay with a ten pound note and receive a farthing in &quot;change&quot; (which the store had imported in bulk from Britain), perhaps attached to a little card thanking them for their business.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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