General News
13 February, 2026
Celebrating 60 years of conversion
A NEW display at the Camperdown and District Historical Society is celebrating the 60th anniversary of Conversion Day, the day Australia changed from pounds, pennies and shillings to dollars and cents.
The official conversion day was February 14, 1966, with the Australian dollar formalised as the official currency of the country.
Historical society member Gillian Senior said the society was pleased to see the display ready to go for the official anniversary on Saturday.
“We had quite a lot of fun talking about it – those who are old enough seem to remember the particular time of the changeover and how it affected them,” she said.
“One of our members was five years old when it happened, another was year 11 and another was in university.
“Anyone at any age seems to have a memory of it.”
“The banks closed for four days beforehand so they could get all their money sorted and their banking and records changed over.
“When they were opened, they were able to hand over the new currency, so people could start using it.”
The display features examples of the ‘old money’ alongside the ‘new money’, which includes the one- and two-cent coins which were discontinued in 1990 and the one- and two-dollar bills which were replaced by today’s coins in 1984 and 1988 respectively.
The display is also accompanied by the original television advertisement jingle.
Ms Senior said she hoped the younger generation will learn more about the changeover between currencies.
“Young people will learn more about the old currency and how awkward it was,” she said.
“We had a pound was 20 shillings and 240 pennies in the pound.
“There were 12 pennies in the shilling – it was very confusing and going to 100 cents in a dollar was so much easier.
“Those who remember it could remember where they were and how it affected them.”
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