Australia's decimal currency was introduced on 14 February 1966 — Decimal Currency Day — replacing the pound system at a rate of two dollars to the pound. The transition involved one of the largest public education campaigns in Australian history, including a jingle so aggressively promoted it remains recognizable sixty years later. That this anniversary falls under Charles III rather than Elizabeth II, who presided over the original changeover, gives the issue an unintentional biographical footnote: the first monarch on the dollar was also the last to appear on the pound coins it replaced.
Australia's decimal currency was introduced on 14 February 1966 — Decimal Currency Day — replacing the pound system at a rate of two dollars to the pound. The transition involved one of the largest public education campaigns in Australian history, including a jingle so aggressively promoted it remains recognizable sixty years later. That this anniversary falls under Charles III rather than Elizabeth II, who presided over the original changeover, gives the issue an unintentional biographical footnote: the first monarch on the dollar was also the last to appear on the pound coins it replaced.