Event
currency of New Zealand from 1840 until 1967
The pound (symbol £, £N.Z. for distinction) was the currency of New Zealand from 1933 until 1967, when it was replaced by the New Zealand dollar. Prior to this, New Zealand used the pound sterling since the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Like the pound sterling, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (abbreviation s or /) each of 12 pence (symbol d).
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Text from the Wikipedia article “New Zealand pound”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The pound (symbol £, £N.Z. for distinction) was the currency of New Zealand from 1933 until 1967, when it was replaced by the New Zealand dollar. Prior to this, New Zealand used the pound sterling since the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Like the pound sterling, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (abbreviation s or /) each of 12 pence (symbol d).
Up until the outbreak of the First World War, the New Zealand pound was at parity with one pound sterling.
As a result of the Great Depression of the early 1930s, the New Zealand agricultural export market to the UK was badly affected. Australian banks, which controlled the New Zealand exchanges with London, devalued the New Zealand pound to match the value of the Australian pound in 1933, from parity or £NZ 1 = £1 sterling to £NZ 1 = 16s sterling (£0.8). In 1948, it returned to parity with sterling or £NZ 1 = £1 sterling.
In 1967, New Zealand decimalised its currency, replacing the pound with the dollar at a rate of $NZ 2 = £NZ 1 (or $NZ 1 = 10/– NZ). In November of that year, the British government devalued sterling from £1 sterling = US$2.80 to US$2.40, but the New Zealand dollar was devalued even more from $NZ 1 = US$1.40 to US$1.12 in order to match the value of the Australian dollar.
Initially, British and Australian coins circulated in New Zealand. The devaluation of the New Zealand pound relative to sterling in the 1930s led to the issue of distinct New Zealand coins in 1933, in denominations of 3d, 6d, 1/– (one shilling), 2/– (or florin) and 2/6 (half-crown), minted in 50% silver until 1946 and in copper-nickel from 1947. In 1940, bronze 1⁄2d and 1d coins were introduced. All these denominations were the same size and weight as their equivalents in the Australian and UK coinage (although Australia never minted a half-crown). When the UK introduced the nickel-brass twelve sided threepenny bit, New Zealand continued to use the smaller silver coin until decimalisation in 1967.
Three commemorative crowns were minted: the Waitangi crown in 1935, a crown to commemorate a proposed royal visit in 1940, and a crown to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Until 1934, private trading banks issued notes. The first bank notes were issued in New Zealand in March 1840 by the Union Bank of Australia at Britannia, now Wellington, then the New Zealand Banking Company followed in September 1840 at Kororareka, now Russell. These banks issued notes in New Zealand:
Between 1852 and 1856, the Colonial Bank of Issue was the only banknote issuing body. Public distrust of these notes soon led to their redemption with Union Bank notes. The discovery of gold in 1861 encouraged competing banks into New Zealand leading to a variety of note issue. By 1924, public demand for convenience in usage led to the six remaining issuing banks agreeing a "Uniform" standard size and colour for each denomination.
When the Reserve Bank of New Zealand was established on 1 August 1934 by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1933, it became the sole issuer of notes. This government agency introduced notes for 10/–, £1, £5 and £50. In 1940, £10 notes were added. Only two series of £1 notes were printed. The first (1934–40) featured the portrait of Matutaera Te Pukepuke Te Paue Te Karato Te-a-Pōtatau Tāwhiao, the second (1940–67) featured Captain James Cook.
The last circulating second series banknotes of the New Zealand pound, at the time of decimalisation in 1967, are described in the following table.
Coins and uncancelled notes issued by the six private trading banks operating in 1934 as well as the Reserve Bank of New Zealand are still redeemable at the RBNZ offices in Wellington. The RBNZ has an obligation to redeem private bank notes. Under the 1933 Reserve Bank Act the privately held gold was confiscated and paid for in RBNZ banknotes.
In all cases, the currency's value to collectors is now far higher than its face value, due to its rarity. A prime example is a first issue Union Bank £1 from the 1840s returned to New Zealand in 1934, for redemption at face value, by its owner in the United States. Today a similar note would be valued in excess of £10,000 sterling. £NZ.50 notes of the Reserve Bank are also extremely rare and fetch a high price from collectors. The note signed by Chief Cashier T. P. Hanna in uncirculated condition could fetch as high as $NZ.25,000 according to the premier value listing for New Zealand notes and coins (some other lesser valued notes signed by Hanna exist).
Text from the Wikipedia article “New Zealand pound”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.