Livre néo-zélandaise

The pound (symbol £, £NZ. for distinction) was the currency of New Zealand from 1840 until 1967, when it was replaced by the New Zealand dollar. Like the pound sterling, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (abbreviation s or /) each of 12 pence (symbol d). Up until the outbreak of the First World War, the New Zealand pound was at parity with one pound sterling. As a result of the Great Depression of the early 1930s, the New Zealand agricultural export market to the UK was badly affected. Australian banks, which controlled the New Zealand exchanges with London, devalued the New Zealand pound to match the value of the Australian pound in 1933, from parity or £NZ 1 = £1 sterling to £NZ 1 = 16s sterling (£0.8). In 1948 it returned to parity with sterling or £NZ.1 = £1 sterling. In 1967, New Zealand decimalised its currency, replacing the pound with the dollar at a rate of $NZ 2 = £NZ 1 (or$NZ 1 = 10/– NZ). In November of that year, the British government devalued sterling from £1 sterling = US$2.80 to US$2.40, but the New Zealand dollar was devalued even more from $NZ 1 = US$1.40 to US$1.12 in order to match the value of the Australian dollar. Initially, British and Australian coins circulated in New Zealand. The devaluation of the New Zealand pound relative to sterling in the 1930s led to the issue of distinct New Zealand coins in 1933, in denominations of 3d, 6d, 1/– (one shilling), 2/– (or florin) and 2/6 (half-crown), minted in 50% silver until 1946 and in copper-nickel from 1947. In 1940, bronze d and 1d coins were introduced. All these denominations were the same size and weight as their equivalents in the Australian and UK coinage (although Australia never minted a half-crown). When the UK introduced the nickel-brass twelve sided threepenny bit, New Zealand continued to use the smaller silver coin until decimalisation in 1967. Notes: The sixpence, shilling, and florin (2 shilling), although rarely seen in circulation, remained legal tender as late as 2006, being used as the identical size and value of its decimal successors: the 5c (cents), 10c, and 20c coins respectively.