IT has been 50 years since in came the dollars and in came the cents, to replace the pounds and the shillings and the pence – so the ditty of the time sang.
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Former Warrnambool teacher Denis McKimmie remembers February 14, 1966 when decimal currency replaced imperial currency in Australia.
The avid coin collector said the transition, while smooth, created a great deal of hype.
“On the day of the introduction of the new currency, I remember going down to the bank and getting different denominations and notes,” he said.
“There were groups of people out on the footpath and they were all handling the new notes and looking at it.
“It was quite a thing.”
Mr McKimmie said his young students learned the new currency by using the money to buy lunches and fund-raising.
“It was difficult for them to comprehend the relative values of pre-decimal coinage with the new stuff,” he said.
“Even the teachers had to then convert everything from one denomination into another and it took some doing.
“Some of it was quite complex – especially in the lower decimal values when coins weren’t exactly equivalent.
“(Using the new currency) helped (the students) to grasp things very quickly.
“I’m sure they learnt better than the teachers did, because the poor teachers just didn’t have money to handle anyway,” he joked.
Warrnambool and District Historical Society vice-president Janet Macdonald said the 50 years had passed quickly.
“I was 12 years old at the time and it was probably the first week of school,” she said.
“I remember seeing the coins in the school canteen. The school was abuzz.”
The Standard reported at the time that one of the first uses of decimal currency in Warrnambool was at a Liebig Street store.
Miss D. Lindsay of Warrnambool purchased a tube of toothpaste for 20 cents, a report in the newspaper said.
Rob Sobey's meat purchase from Cr. A.J Rayner was one of the final times the imperial currency was used in the city.
