Australian twenty-cent coin Australian twenty-cent coin The Australian twenty-cent coin of the Australian decimal currency system was issued with conversion to decimal currency on 14 February 1966, replacing the florin which was worth two shillings – a tenth of a pound. (The Australian pound was converted to two Australian dollars.) To date, three different obverse face designs have been used: from 1966 to 1984, the head of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin; from 1985 to 1998, the head by Raphael Maklouf; and since 1999, the head by Ian Rank-Broadley. The obverse has the inscription AUSTRALIA and the year-of-issue on the right hand
New Zealand fifty-cent coin continuation of a quarter of a pound. The pre-decimal version of a quarter of a pound was the Crown coin (five shillings) which throughout the British Empire was not widely used (the New Zealand crown was only issued in 1935, 1949 and 1953 with a total of 458,148 specimens). However, the fifty-cent retained the dimensions and composition of the Crown but with a different reverse image. The original fifty-cent coin which circulated between 1967 and 2006 was made of cupro-nickel. At diameter and weighing it is the largest coin issued of the dollar. The original included five sections of alternate