The notes of the Australian dollar were first issued by the

Reserve Bank of Australia The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is Australia's central bank and banknote issuing authority. It has had this role since 14 January 1960, when the ''Reserve Bank Act 1959'' removed the central banking functions from the Commonwealth Bank. Th ...

on 14 February 1966, when Australia changed to

decimal currency Decimalisation or decimalization (see spelling differences) is the conversion of a system of currency or of weights and measures to units related by powers of 10. Most countries have decimalised their currencies, converting them from non-decimal ...

and replaced the pound with the

dollar Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, ...

. This currency was a lot easier for calculating compared to the previous Australian pound worth 20 shillings or 240 pence.

First series (paper)

The $1 (10/-), $2 (£1), $10 (£5), and $20 (£10) had exact exchange rates with pounds and were a similar colour to the notes they replaced, but the $5 (£2/10) did not, and was not introduced until May 1967 when the public had become more familiar with

. The original notes were designed by Gordon Andrews, who rejected traditional Australian clichés in favour of interesting and familiar subjects such as Aboriginal culture, women, the environment, architecture and aeronautics. Notes issued between 1966 and 1973 bore the title "Commonwealth of Australia". Starting from 1974, the title on the new notes only read "Australia" and the legal tender phrase was also changed from "Legal Tender throughout the Commonwealth of Australia and the territories of the Commonwealth" to "This Australian Note is legal tender throughout Australia and its territories". The $50 note was introduced in 1973 and the $100 note in 1984, in response to

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...

requiring larger denominations for transactions. The $1 note was replaced by a $1 coin in 1984, while the $2 note was replaced by a smaller $2 coin in 1988. Although no longer printed, all previous notes of the Australian dollar are still considered legal tender.

Polymer commemorative $10 note

In 1988, the Reserve Bank of Australia issued $10 notes in plastic. The

polypropylene Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. It is produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer propylene. Polypropylene belongs to the group of polyolefins a ...

polymer banknote Polymer banknotes are banknotes made from a synthetic polymer such as biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP). Such notes incorporate many security features not available in paper banknotes, including the use of metameric inks. Polymer banknote ...

s were produced by

Note Printing Australia Note Printing Australia (NPA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) that produces banknotes and passports. It was corporatised in July 1998 and is located in Craigieburn, Melbourne. NPA has its origins as a subsidiar ...

, to commemorate the bicentenary of European settlement in Australia. These notes contained a transparent "window" with a diffractive

optically variable device An optical variable device or optically variable device (OVD) is an iridescent or non-iridescent security feature that exhibits different information, such as movement or colour changes, depending on the viewing and/or lighting conditions. The pa ...

(DOVD) image of

Captain James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

as a security feature. Australian notes were the first in the world to use such features. All current Australian notes also contain

microprinting Microprinting is the production of recognizable patterns or characters in a printed medium at a scale that requires magnification to read with the naked eye. To the unaided eye, the text may appear as a solid line. Attempts to reproduce by meth ...

for further security.

Second series (polymer)

There were initial difficulties with the first polymer note issued; the $10 note had problems with the holographic security feature detaching from the note itself. However, the Reserve Bank saw potential in the issue of plastic notes and commenced preparations for an entirely new series made from

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

, commencing with the $5 note in 1992. Today all Australian notes are made of polymer. In April 1995, the design of the $5 notes was updated to match the rest of the New Banknote Series, with additional slight changes in 1996. In 2001, a special commemorative '

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

' $5 note was produced, but in 2002, the previous version's production commenced again. From 2002, the design of all notes (except for the $5 note picturing the Queen) was slightly changed to include the names of the people pictured on them under the portraits, and swapping the order of the signatures of officials on the notes.

Third series (polymer)

On 13 February 2015 the Reserve Bank of Australia announced that the next series of Australia notes would have a tactile feature to help the

visually impaired Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

community to tell the value of the note after a successful campaign led by 15-year-old Connor McLeod, who is blind, to introduce the new feature. The notes retain the key aspects of the previous series' design such as the colour, size and people portrayed for ease of recognition and to minimise disruption to businesses. The new $5 note includes the tactile feature and was issued on 1 September 2016, to coincide with Australia's National Wattle Day, followed by the new $10 banknote on 20 September 2017. The new $50 note was released for circulation on 18 October 2018, followed by the new $20 note on 9 October 2019, and the new $100 was released on the 29 October 2020. The Reserve Bank currently has no plans to release fourth series notes in denominations higher than $100, despite the amount of inflation that has occurred since the $100 note was introduced in 1984. In May 2019 the Reserve Bank confirmed that the $50 note contained a misspelling of the word "responsibility" on the reverse design, a

typo A typographical error (often shortened to typo), also called a misprint, is a mistake (such as a spelling mistake) made in the typing of printed (or electronic) material. Historically, this referred to mistakes in manual type-setting (typography) ...

that would be corrected in future printings.

References

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