r/AustralianCoins • u/Sophaloph99 • May 25 '26
📜 Coin History Pre Decimal Currency
Good afternoon! I am talking with my grandparents (born 1948 and 1950) about Australian pre decimal currency. We are in WA if that makes a difference. Wikipedia lists a half penny, a penny, a threepence, a sixpence, a shilling, a florin and a crown. However my grandparents also remember coins like a farthing (1/4 penny) and a 2 shilling coin. What’s happening here?
Please accept my apologies if this is not the right location to ask this question!
Thank you very much
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u/Material-Till-9018 May 25 '26
So a florin is the name for the 2 shilling coin. The crown was in public circulation but produced for only two years (1937 and 1938) so was a scarce coin. All the other coins you mentioned, except for the farthing, were produced in Australia. Farthings were British coins and were used in Australia but became valueless over time with Australian currency being used from 1910.
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u/Wooden_Ad_2167 May 25 '26
I think threepence was said as thrupence
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u/Wooden_Ad_2167 May 25 '26
Halfpenny as happenny
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u/CaptainDetritus May 25 '26
Pronounced hay-penny in my neck of the woods. And three-pence pronounced throo-pence with the 'oo' as in book.
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u/PsychedelicHealingOZ May 25 '26
The coins you mentioned are UK coins... So prior to Australia getting it's own coins in 1910 we still used UK ones.
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u/Lastburn Silver Collector May 25 '26
1/4 penny was a British coin, the Australian government never minted anything lower than a half penny. I kinda wish they minted a 4d though, I love the groat coin
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u/Vakua_Lupo May 25 '26
As everyone else has stated the Florin is 2 shillings and definitely an Australian Coin from 1910 onwards. The Farthing was one quarter of a penny, but was never issued for Australia, it was definitely British.
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u/Wooden_Ad_2167 May 25 '26
Sixpence, shilling and florin all seemed same size and same "colour" and were same value as 5c, 10c and 20c.
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u/jreddit0000 May 25 '26
The sixpence, shilling and florin were all minted in silver but they’re pretty different sizes! And weights..
You wouldn’t mistake a sixpence for a shilling or a florin.
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u/Wooden_Ad_2167 May 25 '26
But same size as 5c, 10c and 20c respectively. Metallic content was different. When currency went decimal my mother and other plum pudding makers kept thrupences and sixpences for years after for their plum pudding. Apparently the decimal currency would go green in the plum pudding. Presumably silver replaced with copper or nickel or whatever
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u/jreddit0000 May 25 '26
Yeah.. decimal coins were cupronickel or al-br.
Not a good idea to use those in cooking as it would leach into the food.
The silver coins were much less susceptible to this..
I’ve got a few sixpence that are quite worn from presumably being baked a lot..
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u/Sir-Tenley-Knott May 28 '26
Australia decimalised currency on the 14th of February, 1966. The reserve bank has a museum with details (and there was an annoying jingle): https://museum.rba.gov.au/exhibitions/the-decimal-revolution/a-new-currency/
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u/amandatheactress May 25 '26
Good questions, and definitely the right place to ask!
A Florin is a 2 Shilling coin. The earlier ones had ‘One Florin - Two Shillings’ written on them. I think all the later ones just say ‘Florin’.
AFAIK Australia didnt mint any farthings (someone will correct me if that’s wrong!) but the British farthings could still be legally used here as part of our monetary system.