New Zealand decimalized on 10 July 1967, replacing the pound system at a rate of two dollars to one pound. Pattern pieces from this transition period were produced to test designs and compositions before the circulating coinage was finalized, and several competing portrait and reverse configurations were evaluated. The Reserve Bank ultimately selected Arnold Machin's second portrait of Elizabeth II for the circulating series — the same effigy adopted across much of the Commonwealth during this decade.
New Zealand decimalized on 10 July 1967, replacing the pound system at a rate of two dollars to one pound. Pattern pieces from this transition period were produced to test designs and compositions before the circulating coinage was finalized, and several competing portrait and reverse configurations were evaluated. The Reserve Bank ultimately selected Arnold Machin's second portrait of Elizabeth II for the circulating series — the same effigy adopted across much of the Commonwealth during this decade.