Why do Ex-British Colonies use Dollars Instead of Pounds? (Short Animated Documentary) 

Because it made more cents...

Because saying your girlfriend looks like a million pounds sounds offensive

Canadians: - Close proximity to the US & strong trade relations Aussies: - Heavy American influence after WWII Kiwis: - Because the Aussies did it

god the character running through the flowers always kills me

In case anyone is wondering, the Pound Sterling is not that complicated anymore, and was decimalised in 1971.

FRIENDSHIP ENDED WITH BRITISH ECONOMY NOW AMERICAN CAPITALISM IS MY BEST FRIEND

"Now we can't look at all the former British colonies" The Thirteen Colonies: where am I on this map

I would love a video on why the British pound wasn't decimalized from the beginning. The way it used to work is bizarre

It's actually dollary-doos in Australia

*Puts New Zealand in the thumbnail* ... 0:14 "So the two we'll discus is Canada and Australia"

The key reason for the change to dollars (it could have any name other then pound) was the new dollars were half the value of an old pound. Because shillings were the day to day standard for most things, to go decimal, 1 shilling became 10 cents, and a pound became 2 dollars. The new name confirmed the change in value, new system, new name, less feeling "did the price double overnight" because everything is written differently.

History Matters videos just aren't the same when no one falls sideways and dies unexpectedly.

"Australia wished to distance themselves from the old imperial metropole" >still has the British flag within their flag GG Australia GG.

I remember my grandparents talking about shillings and farthings. Saying that things use to cost 3 and 6. It sounded ridiculously confusing.

It’s worth clarifying that Australia had its own pound with a value independent of the pound Sterling. When Canada adopted “the dollar“, it also used its own dollar currency, not America’s.

Wanted to note that a former colony like Egypt still uses the pound although it was made decimal. 1 Egyptian pound equals 100 piasters. Nifty.

Can we get a video on the German Empire’s colonies?

Brit: "I lost 250 pounds" World: "Wow! Were you dieting?" Brit: "No. Gambling."

I remember when I first heard about the currency in Harry Potter and thinking it was crazy because it had different numbers of one thing making up another thing instead of it just being 100 cents to a dollar or something simple like that. Turns out the British pound used to be exactly the same as the wizarding currency. If anything the old British system was even more confusing than the fictional wizarding one.

"The lack of decimalization made the pound more prone to fluctuations" - not explained.

As a Brit I'm so glad we reformed the Pound to be decimal I still don't understand the old system

The currency was actually even more confusing than this video says, there were also florin's Crowns and tanners. Florins were worth 2 shillings, also known sometimes as "2 bob bit" (As shillings were known as bob) The Crown was worth 5 shillings, however the crown was removed in 1965 due to no one really using it, however the "Half-Crown" continued use until 1967 being worth 2 shillings and sixpence. The tanner was worth sixpence, essentially a half shilling. The Florin, Tanner, and the crown were hardly used in the later years, causing some to be stopped minting before the end of decimalisation.

It's still mysterious to me why this is important. Call them dollars or call them pounds, they are still not the same currency. It's actually more confusing to have multiple currencies with the same name.

Something I think you forgot to mention was that Britain itself was trying to distance itself from Empire and was thus creating closer economic ties with Europe at the time while spurning it's former colonies. There was a general sense of abandonment in the 60's which turned even more sour when the UK entered the EU.

Ah money The only measurement we use in the US that makes more sense around the world

What you said about Australia is missing some details: - we had he Australian pound from 1910 until 14 February 1966 - our pound got its own value in 1931 - we had a push towards the metric system in this era (motoring went metric in 1974) - we almost called the currency the "royal" but called it the dollar at the last moment

Britain in 1971: you know that the pound can be decimal, right? Canada, Australia, NZ: surprised pikachu face

My ex-mother-in-law was working at a bank in Adelaide when "decimilization" happened. They closed one day in pounds, and opened the next in dollars.

When you wake up in New York City on October 29, 1929: 2:50

One important point you missed was that Australia's first currency was created in 1813 when Governor Macquarie imported 40000 Spanish dollars and punched a hole in them to create two coins, the holy dollar and the dump to alleviate a currency shortage at that time. This was part of the reason we called our decimal currency the dollar.

The new Australian currency was so nearly called the “royal”. When Harold Holt (a monarchist) announced decimalisation in 1963 the “royal” was chosen as the name

South Africa went decimal in 1961. The old threepenny coin was called a "tickey" and it used to cost one tickey to make a telephone call. Decades later, public telephones were still being called "Tickey Boxes" ...

American and other normal currencies: Decimal is good Pounds: *It's rollercoaster time*

When Ireland became independent in 1922, we used the Punt which was essentially an Irish version of the pound. We used the Punt until 2002 when we started using the Euro. Cyprus had its own pound "The Cypriot Pound" until 2007/2008. Egypt still uses the Egyptian Pound.

When they run through the flowers, it's like me trying to pretend that I have no homework or assignments to do, no tests to study for, no projects, all that. Even though in reality, I'm drowning in it.

youre info is appreciated. the intermingling of a terrific sense of humor is what 'sold' me. _subscribed_

For all it's complexity, the UK £ system was used to be easily divisible by arithmatic. Try dividing a decimal currency equally by 3, 6, or 8! Worked for millenia before calculators were invented.

I'm a bit confused -- the video says the "dollar" like it is some type of standard for currency... but I've never heard of it used that way, and each country has it's own version of the dollar that isn't pegged to the US dollar. I'm also not sure why the label "dollar" would suddenly make a country a preferred trading partner... unless it's all down to perception of "you're on my side." Can anyone explain this?

I wonder how having a non-decimalized currency results in more fluctuations compared to a decimalized one

What does "trading with the pound" vs "trading with the dollar" really mean? Australia and Canada do not use the US dollar as currency. They have their own currency that is called the "dollar." So besides having a different name and the pound used to not be decimally divided (it is now), what does trading with the dollar even mean? The Canadian dollar's value fluctuates in relation to the dollar so its value does does not seem fixed to the value of the dollar. So besides being a different word, what is the difference?

Ireland kept their own version of the pound, called the punt, until it changed to the Euro.

By why choose the dollar? Because now they have to specify to WHICH dollar they are referring. Why didn't they choose a name specific to their country? For example Australia could have gone for something like the Roo (with a hundred Joeys to the Roo).

That was a nice touch including the territory of New Guinea in the shading of Australia @2:05

Ironically, the Great British Pound Sterling would eventually go on to become a decimal currency itself

Mexico is a most curious case. They use the $ symbol for the peso because the Spanish empire invented the dollar, so Mexico kept the symbol but changed the name to peso. Even more confusing is some touristy Mexican businesses list their prices in US$ so you figure out which meaning of $ by the price with the peso typically being worth about 20 cents.

"The lack of decimalisation made the pound more volatile." Wow...

Thanks for making this video, always wondered it but never got to research it ❤

A GOOD VIDEO! It is succinct and informative - thank you.

The US guy running through the field of flowers with a "We're not poor!" sign had me cackling.

Suggestion: how did the mongol empire run itself?

I love your channel keep up the great stuff!!!

Spanish (and later Mexican) silver dollars were a common and universally accepted currency in the New World, which influenced the American adoption of a dollar system over an American pound and primed Canada for moving to a dollar too. These silver coins found their way into Canada's economy as far back as the French colonial period. Their usage left a quirky artefact in Canadian French, specifically relating to the expression for the quarter (i.e. the 25 cent coin). A common and quite old French Canadian slang term for a quarter dollar coin is "trente sous" (30 sous) which is the value of a quarter of an Ancien Régime écu (the French silver coin of the day). It's the analogue of the English language term "two bits" (as in 2 eighths of a Spanish or Mexican dollar). Basically, the term for a quarter French silver coin was transposed to the Spanish and Mexican dollars and eventually to a quarter Canadian dollar coin. Somewhat confusingly, the term "sou" (an French copper coin in use when New France was being settled) became a synonym for the cent coin and cents in general, so that any denomination below a dollar might be described as (number from 1-99) "sous" *but *if someone refers to "30 sous" as an individual object, they actually mean 25 cent coins not 30 cent amounts. So four "30 sous" make a dollar (100 "sous"). Sounds confusing but context makes it rather obvious which is being referred to. If someone describes a price as "30 sous", it's 0.30 CAD. If someone says "deux 30 sous" is your change, they mean 2 coins (quarters). And all that fun is a holdover from the dollar already being common in Canada BEFORE the Seven Years' War and the American revolution (likely due to the triangular trading patterns of the colonial nations and Spanish coin making its way up from the US and the Caribbean).

A video about dropping pounds? Makes sense it came out in January.

0:54 the US has a sensible measurement that is news to me as an American.

2:07 Thank you for the 💐 hopping scene.

WOW!!….😱🤯 - I learned A LOT in/from this video!! THANK YOU, for your informative videos!!😂👍👍👍👍👍

I pretty strongly suspect that the main thrust of this video is flat out wrong. The former colonies wanted to decimalise their currencies, which were already independent of the British Pound, above all else and were not especially concerned with what it was called. Signs point towards the name "dollar" being chosen simply because it was a very well known currency that was already decimalised, rather than any sort of switch of economic focus away from Britain in specific favour of the United States. The video might be right abou Canada though, which has had a much stronger US influence than the other former colonies.

There's also the long history of the Spanish dollar in international trade. America's dollar was directly based off it (except decimal--Spain's was an alternative non-decimal system). Many other countries made dollars, including Britain, for foreign trade, especially in Asia.

"Pounds are Poo" is a sign I would be willing to have stuck in my lawn.

Thank you for the explanation

History Matters back at it again with more great content.

Thank you so much for this video I was wondering about this exact question today

Sort of missed the fact that there was an Australian Pound, priced separately to the Pound Stirling, before the switch to the dollar. The whole point: decimalisation. Not trade with the US. So that's a 'no' from me.

1:02 I had no idea. Now make a follow-up video explaining when and why did they make it decimal in the end.

I always wondered. Seriously, even my friend has raised this question once while we were debating about history.

OMG I have always wondered this and this video was a magnificent representation of what and why and so I say thank you. I also wondered about currency evolution in British minted currency. 2 birds, one video. Well done.

You’ve quickly became my favorite history youtuber. You cover such strange but important little historical minutia’s that are so fascinating

Here in Kenya we don't use dollars. Nor do Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Burma, Cyprus, Malta, or many other former British colonies or dominions. Your otherwise informative video should have been entitled, "Why do SOME or a FEW....?"

We almost had the Royal here but when Sir Bob heard it might get called the "caster oil" by the common people he went with calling it a dollar

The story about the Australian adoption of dollars in this video is fiction. A decision was made to adopt the sensible decimal form of currency and if we had kept the pound the smallest unit would have been worth 2.4 pence which at the time was seen as too large. So the decision was made to adopt a currency worth 10 shillings, half of the old pound. After a lot of discussion Prime Minister Menzies, a great lover of the Queen, announced that the new currency would be called the Royal. As one, the whole nation erupted in laughter and the government backed down and announced that they'd call the new currency the dollar. So the new cent was 1.2 pence and the new 5, 10 and 20 cent coins were the same size as, and temporarily interchangeable with, the old sixpence, shilling and two shillings. A copper two cent coin worth 2.4 pence replaced the silver threepenny coin. By coincidence the new Australian dollar was, at the time, slightly above the US dollar in value.

We Aussies also upgraded to the Metric System around the same time that we switched to decimal currency. :) Simpler. Easier. More accurate.

Fun fact: the Menzies government tried to first introduce the “Royal” as the new Australian currency, but this was ridiculed and the AUD was chosen instead.

I was 11yrs old when NZ changed to dollars and cents from pounds, shilling and pence, we spent a couple of years in school doing conversion exercises.

Ok I get that it’s difficult to talk about every British colony that went from the pound to a dollar but it would have been interesting to know how many former colonies throughout the empire changed to dollar beyond the big 4. You have the Caribbean islands, Singapore. Hong Kong, and some African nations. Give an honest scope!

On 15 January 1520, the Kingdom of Bohemia began minting coins from silver mined locally in Joachimsthal and marked on reverse with the Bohemian lion. The coins would be named joachimsthaler after the town, becoming shortened in common usage to thaler or taler. The town itself derived its name from Saint Joachim, whereby the German word Thal (Tal in modern spelling) means 'valley' (cf. the English term dale). This name found its way into other languages, for example:[8] German - Thaler (or Taler) Czech and Slovak - tolar Low German - daler Dutch - rijksdaalder (or daler), Danish and Norwegian - rigsdaler Swedish - riksdaler Spanish - Spanish dólar (real de a ocho or Peso duro) Ethiopian - talari (ታላሪ ) English - dollar By the time of the American Revolution, Spanish dólar gained significance because they backed paper money authorized by the individual colonies and the Continental Congress. Common in the Thirteen Colonies, Spanish dólar were even legal tender in one colony, Virginia. On April 2, 1792, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton reported to Congress the precise amount of silver found in Spanish dollar coins in common use in the states. As a result, the United States dollar was defined as a unit of pure silver weighing 371 4/16th grains (24.057 grams), or 416 grains of standard silver (standard silver being defined as 1,485 parts fine silver to 179 parts alloy). It was specified that the "money of account" of the United States should be expressed in those same "dollars" or parts thereof. Additionally, all lesser-denomination coins were defined as percentages of the dollar coin, such that a half-dollar was to contain half as much silver as a dollar, quarter-dollars would contain one-fourth as much, and so on. The term "dollar" has also been adopted by other countries for currencies which do not share a common history with other dollars. Many of these currencies adopted the name after moving from a £sd-based to a decimalised monetary system. Examples include the Australian dollar, the New Zealand dollar, the Jamaican dollar, the Cayman Islands dollar, the Fiji dollar, the Namibian dollar, the Rhodesian dollar, the Zimbabwe dollar, and the Solomon Islands dollar. So, initially, dollars were basically copied, to mimic the amount of silver in the commonly used Spanish dollar so they could easily be traded between countries, this ended when the gold standard was adopted, countries that switched their currencies after already adopting the gold standard just used dollar so as to not create confusion during any change over period where both currencies could be accepted and because it was the already defined standard word used almost everywhere in the world to describe decimal currency.

Now make a video on why the US - A former British Colony, uses the Dollar - A Spanish nomenclature of currency! :)

"The Pound Sterling is not decimal and thus more volatile" does *not* make (obvious) sense. Someone please explain.

Canada, South Africa, NZ, and Australia used to used their own version of a pound. I think many changed the name to dollars when the changed to a decimal system.

Francs were also very complicated from what I recall. There was sou, centime, gold (which I think was worth about 25 francs each?) and I still haven't figured out the exchange rates despite reading a lot of 19th century French literature.

Bit of trivia. The British Pound is the oldest continuously used unit of currency in the world. About 1200 years now.

The British still use the Pound, but in decimal format. The use of dollar as currency had nothing to do with the US, but was common name. The various dollars are of different value. Just as the pounds were of different value. The main driver was the desire to move to decimal currency. PS. The name dollar is not a US invention.

Why would the lack of decimalization make the pound 'more prone to fluctuation'? This makes no sense.

This is a funny man. Good stuff.

1:18 Though it should be noted that the old British Pound was able to almost always be divided, so for instance if you had a group of 3 people splitting a payment from something, each could actually get an equal share. Meanwhile with a decimal currency, you can't equally pay 3 people from one lump sum of money. Lindybeige has a nice video on the topic if you want to know a lot more. I'm just giving a VERY brief overview. Though I will say, to the people that used the old Pound system, it made a lot more sense because it's what they were raised around, it only seems so complicated to us because it's not the system we use.

Never would’ve thought of this. Also Stars, yo!

What about the Rupee? British India's currency was always the Rupee and never the Pound Sterling (at least to my knowledge) and I always wondered why

Perfect. Efficient. Excellent explanation.

It wasn't so much that Australia adopted the dollar, but rather that we adopted the decimal system. Menzies' original suggestion was that the new currency unit would be called the Royal. The pound was not used as it would have meant, to avoid confusion, having a decimal pound that was equivalent to the old pound. This would have meant not only dispensing with half pennies (which was unpopular as it was expected to increase prices) but would also have meant that prices would have effectively dispensed with the single penny as 240 pennies would have been replaced with 100 cents. It was considered easier to have one new unit (dollar or royal) equivalent to half of the old pound unit. One pound therefore was equivalent to two dollars. Since one and two cent coins were eventually scrapped it would have been smarter replacing one old pound with one decimal pound but it was judged that the electorate would not have accepted this back in 1966.

Thank god the pound system has been simplified now. Now it’s just 100 pence to the pound with no shillings to complicate it and is much more stable now.

Love to see Americans and brits arguing about the metric and imperial system.. In a video about Australia and Canada’s decisions XD

One little known fact: in 1914/15 the Pound Sterling and the Australian Pound were legal tender in Australia and it's territories then. In addition though, for a 6 month period in 1914/15 the German Mark and an Australian Mark were also legal in Australian Pacific area territories. These were the former German colonies occupied by Australia from September 1914, and Papua. The Australian Marks looked more like official receipts than real money, and the locals did prefer the German coinage (10 Marks was equivalent to One Pound). Midway through 1915 both the Australian and German Marks were withdrawn and only £stg and £AUS were from then on legal tender. Those Australian Marks are now so rare that they are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Examples are to be found in a museum in Munich.

my teacher told us back in the 60's when Australia was about to change into dollars it made everything easier. she told us how the pound works and it sounds so confusing

In the early days of European settlement of Australia, British pounds were extremely difficult to come across as there was a shortage. The most common currency available in Australia was the Spanish peso, and it became the unofficial currency of Australia. The middle would be cut out denoting to allow for a sort-of decimalisation, and they were known as 'Holy Dollars', partly because of the hole, and partly because they were associated with a Catholic country. Then the Australian pound was introduced and being a nation of convicts, we counterfeited the sh*t out of it. When Australia finally introduced the AUD, the guy they put on the new $10 note was a famous counterfeiter. Our Government then had to go so far as to develop plastic notes in the eighties to stop counterfeiting. It took other countries about twenty years to adopt our superior technology, and we're already onto our second generation of plastic notes.

Very interesting video. Did you know the name „Dollar“ derives from the German „Thaler“, which again was named after „Joachimsthal“, a town in Bohemia, now Czechia, where silver was mined?

I always wondered about this....!

Irony: we promoted a decimal currency in the US but still haven’t adopted the metric system.

Why would decimalization or lack thereof have any influence on the volatility of a currency? The rest made sense, but I can find no logic explaining why currencies divided into 240 should be less stable than those divided into the (equally arbitrary, if to us more familiar) number 100.

2:33 Australia and South Africa look like the Joker's head with a mask

the idea of non decimal currency hadn't even crossed my mind til now, even though it seems super obvious. still blows my mind

I love your videos! Just one detail, in min 2:53 you show a map of the U.S prior to the Gadsen purchase, but you are talking about 1966.