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Australian currency (Australian Dollar, AUD)

Fact 1 - At the time when New Zealand dollar had a similar rate to the Australian dollar in 1980s it was suggested that the Australian currency should be an 'Australis' and it was further defined as an 'ANZAC dollar'. When it was eliminated by the Australian treasurer the Australian dollar was thought to be adopted or the value of the New Zealand dollar attachment to the Australian.

The currency union can establish a fixed currency rate rather than the present situation of rates fluctuation. The sense of this situation is that the currency value gets fixed with respect to some measure instead of the actual currency confirmation like the currencies rates attachment to the price of gold.

Fact 2 - The Commonwealth of Australia that includes Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island, Norfolk Island, the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu has the AUD (Australian dollar) as its official currency, marked with the dollar sign $, since 14 February, 1966. There are a number of abbreviations, such as A$, $A, $AU, AU$, used to differentiate the Australian dollar from other countries operating dollar. "Aussie battler" is its another name. This currency had a different name, the "Pacific Peso" at the short period from 2001 to 2002. One Australian dollar contains 100 cents.

The Australian dollar has the fifth position at the priority of traded currencies in forex. It goes after the U.S. dollar, the euro, the yen, and the Pound sterling. The Australian dollar holds from 4% to 5% of the transactions around the world. The economy stability and the absence of a severe governmental regulation of the AUD makes it appealing for currency traders.

Fact 3 - The monetary policy of Australia is established by RBA (The Reserve Bank of Australia). It has three key objectives:

  • the Australian currency stability;
  • full employment support within the country;
  • the wellbeing of the economy and the prosperity of the Australians.

Fact 4 - The AUD$ correlates with the prices for gold and commodities by 80%. It happens because Australia has the third place in gold production in the world and its gold export makes up $5 billion annually. This causes the AUD$ dependence on the commodity prices: the Australian dollar rises when they go up and declines when they get lower.

Fact 5 - The British-established colonies have widely used lots of currency forms. The Bank of New South Wales has issued first notes in Australia in 1816. The Australian Notes Act (1910) gave birth to the First Australian notes in 1913. The British system of twenty shillings to a pound and twelve pence to a shilling has served an example. The decision of decimal currency adoption was taken in 1963 by the Australian government and the currency named "Dollar" was accepted on February 14, 1966.

Nowadays, the Australian bank notes are made of plastic. Australia was the first country that started using this technology and it is proud of this fact a lot.

There are the 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollar notes in Australia. Moreover it also has the coins of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents as well as the ones of one and two dollars.