Decimal currency day

Before 1967 New Zealand counted its money in pounds, shillings and pence, a system in which a pound was divided into 20 shillings and a shilling into 12 pence, and which by the 1950s was considered complicated and cumbersome. Te Ara says a change to decimal currency was suggested as early as 1908. A government-appointed currency committee considered it in 1933 but decided against it because of the costs and the depressed economy. In the 1950s the Labour MP Rex Mason put a series of private member's bills to Parliament, and a committee set up by the National government in 1957 recommended decimalisation. By the 1960 election both main parties supported it. In 1963 the National government announced that New Zealand would switch to decimal currency on 10 July 1967, and the change was overseen by Robert Muldoon, under-secretary for finance from early 1964 and a future prime minister.

There was much public discussion about what to call the new money. In his 1974 autobiography Muldoon listed some of the suggestions, among them crown, double crown, doubloon, fern, royal, tūī, zeal and zealer, and he recorded that even 'Muldoon' was proposed. Australia had chosen 'dollar' in 1963, it was the most popular option in a newspaper poll, and the government settled on dollars and cents. The coins caused a much bigger argument. An open design competition in 1964 drew 624 designs from 156 people, but the advisory committee managing the process was unimpressed and invited artists to submit designs instead. The Royal Mint in England dismissed most of the shortlist, drawings of the designs leaked to newspapers and drew a very unfavourable public response, and the government then published all the artists' designs and let the public vote. In 1966 it chose the public favourite, James Berry, for all six coins: a fern (1 cent), kōwhai (2 cents), tuatara (5 cents), a koruru or carved Māori head (10 cents), a kiwi and fern (20 cents) and James Cook's ship Endeavour (50 cents). The new banknotes, designed by a New Zealand committee in consultation with the London printers Thomas De La Rue, carried a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, the first New Zealand paper money to show the reigning monarch. They were kept under wraps until June 1967 to thwart counterfeiters.

A cartoon banknote character called 'Mr Dollar' became the symbol of the change in a huge publicity campaign, and a jingle was used to promote the new currency. The delivery of the money to banks, dubbed 'Operation Overlander', took place between April and June 1967, according to Te Ara. NZHistory describes $112 million in notes and $8 million in coins being taken to trading banks around the country in the weeks before 10 July by secret trains carrying Reserve Bank, police and army staff. In all there were 27 million new banknotes and 165 million new coins, valued at $120 million and weighing more than 700 tonnes. The banks closed from Wednesday 5 July to give staff time to convert their records. On Monday 10 July the dollar replaced the pound at two dollars to one pound, so that one dollar was worth ten shillings and ten cents one shilling. To ease the change, the 5, 10 and 20-cent coins were the same size as the sixpence, shilling and florin they replaced, and until 1970 the 10-cent coin also bore the words ONE SHILLING.

Te Ara judges that the move, radical as it was, was quickly accepted, but notes that the economy faced a major decline in agricultural prices at the same time and took much longer to come to grips with that change. In November 1967 the new dollar was devalued from US$1.40 to US$1.12, to match the value of the Australian dollar. The licensing law changed the same year. On 23 September 1967, 64.4% of voters in a national referendum supported later closing of pubs, and the last 'six o'clock swill' took place on Saturday 7 October, ending 50 years of six o'clock closing. Most local authorities chose opening hours of 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. from Monday 9 October.

NZHistory dates the first $50 note to 1981, while Te Ara gives 1983. One- and two-cent coins were withdrawn in 1990, and the $1 and $2 notes were replaced by coins, in 1990 according to NZHistory and in 1991 according to Te Ara. Banknotes were made of polymer instead of paper from 1999, and in 2006 the 5-cent coin was withdrawn and the 10, 20 and 50-cent coins were made smaller and lighter. The New Zealand dollar is also the official currency of the Cook Islands, Tokelau, Niue and the Pitcairn Islands.