A Wide Range of Paper Decimal Banknotes from 1966 to 1996

Australian Banknotes Book

The introduction of decimal currency to Australia in 1966 was unequivocally one of the biggest changes ever made to the Australian monetary system.

Although Australian paper decimal notes have been phased out for the newer polymer banknotes, there are still millions in circulation. This means that in circulated conditon most notes will sell for their face value only. 

In recent years, there has been a major uptick in interest in paper decimal notes - not the major rarities as you might initially think, but more for attractive and presentable notes that can be shown as representing the culture of Australia at the time they were being used as circulating currency.

With that groundswell of demand for the cheapest notes, we see a positive future for the rarer notes and those in mint condition.

The 3 decades over which paper decimal banknotes were produced provides collectors with a large variety of notes to collect, as well as a number of different ways of accumulating them. Some collectors like to buy notes with certain first or last prefixes in the serial numbers, others like to collect star replacement notes, while others still look to buy all of them. Printing errors on banknotes generally didn't happen too often, so notes like that can command big dollars.

Australia’s transition to polymer technology in the 1990s resulted in a vast increase in the number of collectors of paper decimal banknotes. As this broad demand base continues to increase in financial capacity and numismatic sophistication, collectors go on to purchase rarer and higher quality notes.