Dollar Bill and Australians Keep The Wheels Of Industry Turning 

Did they even have year 7 in 1966 or was it "first form"?

We do have anti-counterfeit measures on US banknotes, but they don’t seem to have as strong of polymer coating, since they tear easily.

Weights?

Can you go swimming with Australian money

Their accents here...wow. when English around the world sounded more similar...

Yup!

Idk, Dumb Ways to Die was pretty good! 😂

Sung to the tune of... click go the shears boys click click click... Rolf Harris

Hahaha I guess some things never change

It’s very catchy I was only three born 1963 but it’s still in my memory bank.

Only found out about this a few days ago (I'm from the US) but it constantly gets stuck in my head.

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I bet the teachers loved you for that!

...we still do.! We still talk about a bob, two bob, a zac, etc. The affectionisms were just transferred to the same sized coins, 10c became the new 'bob', 20c became the new 'two bob', and 5c became the new 'zac' (sixpence) and I was 10years old when we switched over, I remember there were STILL one shilling, two shilling, and sixpenny pieces circulating in the currency many years later, all happily masquerading as new legal tender 10c, 20c, and 5c pieces respectively - and it was good to still have them there in the currency for so long, they were just treated as 10c, 20c, and 5c. coins. But we also had the copper 1c and 2c coins as well, I'm sure I remember them being mentioned in 1965-66. The one cent coin was about as big as the old silver theepenny piece (thripence) or the old copper farthing (¼ penny), and the copper 2c coin was about as big as the old copper hapenny (½ penny), and, much to my disagreement, they stopped circulating the 1c and 2c coins in the earky 90s [Only got 3 quarters of a 9 litre plastic bucket full of them in the shed ! 😊) Going metric in weights volumes and measures was a bit different. Even though I've spent most of my working life in engineering and steel fabrication and welding shops, for most of my life I could straight away visualize what 5foot 10inches (5'10") was far better than I could visualize what a 178cm was. and 10 stone (appx 140 lb) better than 63.5 kg. 😊

@@repentorperish1405 My parents and I emigrated to the UK in 1980 and the UK still had two shilling coins in circulation, treated as 10 new pence, I think up until the 1990s when the size of 10p coins in the UK got smaller and so the old coins were phased out.... more than 20 years after decimalisation in the UK in 1971.... interesting that the Australian Dollar was pegged to 10/- in 1966 and not to 20/-, but considering the value of one pound in '66, it was logical, I guess.

@@clavichord They borrowed that idea from South Africa's changeover to the rand in 1961.

@@repentorperish1405 In about 1983 we got a 1905 farthing in our change after grocery shopping. I still have it.

My grandma called twenty cents a schillings until she died in 1990.

I thought the exact same thing. Very clever!

When Britain converted, they did the same thing with the florin and shilling. The new 10p and 5p coins were the same size as the old ones, and the sixpence circulated at least until 1980 at 2 1/2 p. The shilling lasted in circulation until 1990, and the florin was still in circulation the first time I went to Britain in 1992.

@@almostfm that's right. In the 90s the 5p and 10p coins were made smaller so the old shilling and florin didn't actually cease to be legal tender until 20 years after decimalsation day in 1971. But boy did people moan about it. I'm so glad we didn't convert to th Euro as it would be like 71 all over again. Now we are out of the EU that's unlikely.

My Dad was 44 Days old when they converted

It would be easier to communicate information on item values if everyone knew the exact values of items rather than having to use multiples of subdivisions of currencies. Imagine if you were developing an eCommerce site and you had to program adding values together in £-s-d.

Happy boss = less headache for his worker

Well they are the most politically affluent and the ones doling out the paychecks… And this is to convince business owners as well. Especially over a change that might’ve been seen as needless.

Bosses = Business. Just saying business will run smoother.

Things that make economical sense have a greater chance to be supported by businesses.

50th anniversary of decimal currency in Australia too, hah.

yes he did the voice of Mr Pound indeed.

RIP Ted Bullpitt

Well, you learn something every day.

Pickle me Grandmother!

Wow. THAT bad?

@@Sennmut - That good. I wish that the United States wasn't the last major country to adopt such an easy system. We were the first to adopt the decimal money system.

Like I said...THAT bad?????

@@OldsVistaCruiser : Actually, we were the *second* to adopt decimal currency. Russia already had 100 kopeks to the ruble since 1704.

We're one of 3 countries to not switch over to the metric system in daily life, despite Congress passing the 1975 Metric Conversion Act.

That second sentence. . . punctuation is your friend, man.

Yep there'd be anti decimal protests. "My currency my choice." lol

@@Dan40049 haha

Hell there are cranks in the UK that want to revert back to per-decimalization

@@danielschick7554 Because dozenal is better than decimal (20/- = £1 was unnecessary tho)

@@danielschick7554 Yeah because its not recognised as lawful tender under the constitution and has no head of power. The queen of australia on our dollar bill is a trademark registered in the US Washington DC. It also doesn’t have the power to pay off debt - only discharge it and drive inflation. It’s also not completely backed by real value because of inflation, so in a time of crisis there wont be enough gold in the reserves to back its inflationary figure. As always, the stupid masses eat up whatever they can that will convenience themselves without ever considering a slight of hand from the ones prompting it.

+Douglas Roth Correct. For an interesting history of this tune take a look at this Wikipedia page. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_Go_the_Shears - Originally an American Civil War song. Litigious copyright lawyers not so prevalent back then maybe?

yes lol

Absolutely!

They used the same tune when introducing roundabouts here too. "Coming to a roundabout, now's the time to slow, you'll be going round it, to where you want to go. Is anybody coming? Stop if you're in doubt! You must give way if they're already on the roundabout"....

Kind of hard NOT to notice that major-league earworm. We sang a version of it as London schoolkids, and half a century later I can still remember "In come the dollars, in come the cents..." and the magic date in 1966, while I can't recall one British decimalisation film or jingle from 1971. After I recently gave myself an unintentionally drastic "COVID lockdown haircut" with an electric beard trimmer and saw myself in a mirror, I had the original "Click go the shears" running through my head for 2 weeks straight!

I can’t believe they let an 8 year old buy 4 packs of cigarettes hahaha

Colour TV came to Australia just before the 1976 Olympics.

+Little Wobby Getting a lot of attention now with the anniversary. Paid in pounds!

What a true artist, very impressive work

The round 50c was minted in 1966, then none were minted in 67 or 68, then they began minting the current 12-sided 50c in 1969.

+Robster Godsafake I started my first job a week before this, so my first pay was in decimal currency. $16.00 for a forty hour week, or 40 cents per hour.

Was he Dollar Bill or Mr. Pound?

Those poor contemporary Americans, jeering at this Brit expat old enough to remember pounds, shillings and pence, and asking how "you people" ever got so @#$%ed-up as to use a system that doesn't do neat tens and hundreds and decimals? Oh, I say, you mean like METRIC as opposed to your BRITISH IMPERIAL ...and they suddenly change the subject Tee-hee...

Oh sure, bring our *freedom* units into this. Your just jealous that we're better then the rest of the world

@@pawpatrolnews The foot is based on the British King's shoe size, the yard is based on his waist, and the acre is the amount of land a peasant can plough in a day. Your so called freedom units are a tribute to your overlords

@@AuChoco Ha ha, that old Brittish king must have been *fat*

@@pawpatrolnews It was Henry VIII. Converted England to Protestantism to get a divorce, morbidly obese and died of gout so painful he turned Catholic in his death bed and clutching a rosary like it was the last thread of his life

Yes why do we never get this question at the pub quiz

I can't remember this old Australian film being shown in the UK and I would have thought that as the conversion values were different i.e. 1 shilling = 5p rather than 1 shilling = 10p/c as in Australia, and therefore the 2 shilling coin would have been worth 10p etc, showing it would have caused immense confusion. I was 10 when we changed.

+NFSA Films I also like how this video is in Colour.

Pickle me grandmother i never picked up on it being Ted leave the money on the fridge lol

Yep and they recorded at Natec Sound Studios in Sydney. In the last song Kev is way out of sync, god bless him.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7lHK2SEqNtw.html

That makes me feel old.

In Vietnam, somehow the opposite is correct...

Yes it can, 2 dollar fuky fuky.

I’m back haha

Guess who’s back....

@@mishumydog Please come back! We miss you!

You’re not back 😢

@@CornettoMcLovin im back :)

Jeez that's a low blow for Dollar Bill comparing him to that muppet!

@@davidvile239 Kevin Rudd reminds me more of a SouthPark character.

I believe $Bill looks like Bill Shorten in an animation.

Kevin Rudd looks like Mr Sheen.

Well given the years has passed since the original comment, Morrison must be a nightmare on Elm St. Given the last few months, he resembles Nero; handing out grants to mates while Rome (the.country) burns even going on holiday during a national emergency.

It's £2,656 1s 10 1/2d. Now you know why it needed to change.

WedgePee, I was almost right, except I forgot the halfpenny. 🤦‍♀️

The thing to do is to convert the original amount in to dollars, do the multiplication, then convert it back to Lsd.😉😊

It's getting on for sixty years now since the good ol' dollar showed it's face. Are you still around?

We're just over two years from 60 years of decimal currency now.

That's why it's in colour.

For a while after change over you may have gotten older coins mixed in but not anymore.

I was amazed last year to get a 1926 two shilling coin out of the supermarket self serve machine. A very rare event. Previous non decimal one maybe the late seventies. Partly old higher silver content coins being scooped up to be illegally melted down. Heard discussion of this in 1980.

@@johnd8892 sliver sixpence are still sold as Christmas pudding coins as they don’t poison the pudding like new ones do.I mean people collect the old sixpences.

nice catch!

Foo widespread in Australia. Kilroy very rare

There were metric PSAs in the 70s. Here's one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JUXutV6Vk6k.html

Colour version made for showing in picture theatres with the ads before the main features.

Does it feel weird seeing the 50c coin as a 12-sided dodecagon instead of being round, like every other Australian coin?

@@ChopperV-8807 as I am reading these comments now a discussion on the radio stated the change was to assist the blind to not confuse the 20 cent and 50 cent. What are the odds of that coincidence?

They're worth a bit these days. My mum has a couple of coin bags full of them, and just a few weeks ago a customer gave us one at work! I swapped it out for a modern 50c piece and kept the round one. :D

The round 50c had third of ounce silver. But silver price shot up and so replaced by the silverless 12 sided.

Komment Kid The melody is from "click go the shears boys"

ikr

That was the idea. Easy to remember, and easy to convert to the new money. I started my first job right at changeover time, so that my first pay was in decimal. $32 for two weeks with NSW Railways. 40 cents per hour.

In come the dollars in come the cents, be prepared folks when the coins begin to mix on the 14th of February 1966

Me neither :))

I bet the song had a lot to do with the success of the transition.

+phrenzy1 Most likely because "pound" & "new pound" would have been very confusing.

+platformone the British did exactly this with no problem what so ever. I suppose this is the era of everything American was good and we wanted to be in line with them. This was Australia being their only 'nam ally after all.

+phrenzy1 Australia has always been an interesting mix of the UK and the US. For example, we have a Westminster-style Parliament, but we deliberately decided to use the American names (House of Representatives and Senate).

+phrenzy1 The value of the pound stayed the same, what with being an international reserve currency, it was the penny that changed value. You guys by the looks of this kept the cent the same and went the other way.

Australia and later New Zealand converted over and there was a concern about the confusion it would caused. The British and the Irish observed the conversion and realised the conversion was successful enough that they could retain the pound but divide the pound by 100 pennies.

Same with the UK in 1971 we were told it was because that was the quietest times for the banks . Ireland did the same in 1971 and New Zealand in 1967 .

Eh, but 10 shilling to a dollar, 5 shilling to 50 cents etc seems fairly easy as it is

@@Sonofalewis shilling - no c

Making a switch to base 10 from the old system is just much easier when you consider that you can divide the new base unit of currency into 10 shillings easily for a conversion it's based on the successful conversion from the south african pound to the Rand which happened earlier. All those things you just said ('they could do x, y, or z) are more complicated that what was done Devaluing the Australian dollar (when the Australia's currency was effectively pegged/linked to other major currencies and wasn't floated like it is now) was not a big deal, unlike in Great Britain where the British pound was a global reserve currency and any attempts to mess with the pound ran the risk of having negative effects on global commerce and the british economy

Echidna was hardly ever used when I was young back in the 50s and 60's. Back then it was always a spiny ant-eater, if you'd have said the word 'echidna' most people (not all but most) would not have known what you were talking about. The name Echidna only came into vogue years later.

You must feel for the museum staff.

from the look of it their saying PNG will change at the same time, but rember at the time PNG wasn't whole heartedly austrlaian but only an Australian colony which was going to be decolonised eventually.

I saw it in colour at the pictures (excuse me, the 'Cinema' - old Aussie lingo habits die hard)