Day 53: A Question Of Money

 

Tomorrow, Leap Year Day, February 29th, we will land in Sydney, Australia. It's a country so big that it always feels like you've only seen a tiny fraction of it whenever you leave. So we'll be hitting different ports over eleven days, and I'll write up each of those. 

One quirky thing I've always loved about Australia is the banknotes. Almost every
country has far more exciting and colorful banknotes than the US. They're all a uniform green (aka the greenback) and a uniform six inches long. Which is great as a standby tape measure but otherwise incredibly dull. Australia was the first country to develop and circulate the polypropylene polymer notes. These are way more durable (you cannot tear them with your hands), easier to clean, and 100% recyclable. They also got smart and eliminated the $1 note in 1984 and the $2 note in 1988. (cough, cough - US Treasury, take note: even the Brits have done this!!)

The Aussie technology is so good that they either print banknotes or license the technology to almost 20 other countries, including neighbors New Zealand (above), Singapore, and the French Polynesian Islands (left). What I love about these notes is that the colors are so vibrant and that the countries use them to showcase native animals or famous figures.

Australia formerly used the old British Pounds, Shillings, and Pennies system. For the uninitiated, there were 12 Pennies in a Shilling and 20 Shillings in a Pound (meaning 240 Pennies in a Pound). Yeah - math was fun back then. Australia decimalized in 1966, whilst the UK waited until 15 February 1971. I still remember that - we called it "D-Day." 

On the cruise, especially as we're now hitting Africa, multiple currencies will be in play. Many of which I'd never heard of - like the Ghanaian Cedi or the West African CFA Franc. More fun. Stay tuned as I introduce more currencies over the next few months and research their histories.