Maybe if they put American authors on the tokens we'd be more excited.

I remember when Canada did away with the one dollar bill back in the 90s. Heck, we even got rid of the TWO dollar bill. They replaced both by corresponding coins (or tokens). So now we have a one dollar coin, generally referred to as the "loonie", mainly because there's a loon on the back of the coin. (And no, that doesn't mean we have a crazy person on the back of the coin, even though that would be kind of cool)

Then there's the TWO dollar coin. Of course, that got to be called the "toonie" .....

I'm still partial to the idea of using clam shells as currency. There'd be major problems with inflation, not to mention massive and smelly purses ....

We used to have a $2 bill---I haven't seen one in years. As for coins, they're heavy & my purse weighs a ton now with all the change I 've collected.

Australia's currency is interesting. We did away with $1 and $2 bills years ago and have coins. Both regularly have the face (never know which has which name) changed. Our notes are different sizes to help those with visual disabilities and also different colours to help the rest of us, and are made of a kind of plastic which is very hard to reproduce, lasts a long time and allows a clear hologram type thing to be inserted to make forgery more difficult.

Kath, I just dug out the Australian money I saved from my trip there last year. Again I'm struck by how colorful it is: the $5 note is pink and purplish, the $10 is blue and yellow. Question: Is that a plan of the capitol building in Canberra on the back of the five? And who is that figure next to Mary Gilmore on the ten? He(?) looks really strange!

All the 50-cent coins I have are different on the reverse side -- a windmill, aboriginal pictographs, a series of Australian sports (can't quite make out some of them), and a heraldic-type symbol with a kangaroo and an ostrich facing each other. The 20-cent coins all seem to have a platypus, but I'm not sure what is on the 10-cent piece -- is that a plant? It took me a while to see the animal on the 5-cent piece. Do you have nicknames for your coins like we do? 5 cents is a nickel, 10 cents is a dime, our 25-cent coin is a quarter (no 20-cent coin); etc. We used to have half-dollars -- I loved those when I was a kid.

Uh, I guess that should be an emu, not an ostrich!

The 10 cent coin has a lyre bird on it. This bird lives in the mountain forests and is a great mimic. I have heard one making the sound of a chainsaw being used by loggers nearby.

The 5 cent coin has an echindna - a cousin of the platypus, those two being the only egg laying mammals.

The reverse of the $5 has indeed got the New Parliament House building on it - some of it is under a mound with the big flag pole on top.

As for the $10, that is A B 'Banjo' Paterson who wrote 'Waltzing Matilda' and my personal favourite, 'Clancy of the Overflow'.

We don't have special names for the coins Frieda. Before decimal currency we did - although I don't remember all of them, one (I think it was sixpence) was called a zac, a shilling was a bob, so two shillings two bob and ten shillings had a name I can't recall.

Forgot to add, we have had different pictures on the 50 cent coins for years - I have a collection and there are at least 20 I would think.
More recently they have changed the $1 and $2 and also the 20 cent piece.

We in the UK got rid of the pound note several years ago - I'm not sure, but it may be as many as fifteen or twenty years ago.

The coin is just known as a "quid" or "pound", same as the note. Though there was a gallant attempt to call it a maggie, after Margaret Thatcher - because it's small, brassy and thinks it's a sovereign.

Bwahahahahahaha Martin

Let us hope that this time they make them distinguishable at a glance from quarters. I remember back in the day the D.C. metro ticket machines would give change from a $5 bill in $1 coins. I had to keep them in a separate purse pocket to keep from spending them as quarters.

Aha! Now I see the lyre bird -- its head is under its fanned-out feathers.

So, yes, A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson is on front of the $10 note. I wasn't sure which was the front and which was the reverse. I like the way he looks, especially his hat. But the figure that confuses me is above the shoulder of Mary Gilmore. I think I see a resemblance between the two -- perhaps it's Mary in her later years, wearing ceremonial robes of some sort?

I liked the 50-cent coin, too. If we ever do go to $1 coins, I hope we have a $2 also. It would be so handy since hardly anything seems to cost less than $1 anymore.

Yes, Frieda, the portrait at the back is by William Dobell and was done for the Archibald Prize, which is probably Australia's best known art prize and is for portraiture.

And the reason the Australian $2 coin is smaller than the $1 coin:
First "the World's Greatest Tresurer" (his opinion) decided to turn $1 from a note into a coin. Then he decided to float the dollar on the world market. Well, we all know how well a coin floats so no-one was too surprised when it sank like a rock, taking its value with it :-(. By the time they decided to turn the $2 note into a coin, it was worth about half of what the dollar had been worth when that was turned into a coin. So the $2 coin is about half the size of the $1 coin.
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it :-D.
The bob (shilling) was also called a deener, and the two bob was also called a florin. Ten shillings was a half quid.
The 1c piece had, IIRC a possum or sugar glider on it, and the 2c piece had a frill-necked lizard. Hey Kath- do you remember the round 50c pieces?

Yep, Colleen, sure do. They stopped making them because they had silver in them and became more valuable in silver content than their face value.

My son brought one of the new dollar coins home today. It is very very shiny, which makes it look like the fake money they throw in Mardi Gras parades. George Washington looks disconcertingly out at you from the coin.

Brenda