 The decimal dollar replaced the New Zealand pound (pegged to the British pound) at the rate of two dollars per pound, thus a fifty-cent coin would be a continuation of a quarter of a pound.The pre-decimal version of a quarter of a pound was the Crown coin (five shillings) which throughout the British Empire was not widely used (the New Zealand crown was only issued in 1935, 1949 and 1953 with a total of 458,148 specimens).However, the fifty-cent retained the dimensions and composition of the Crown but with a different reverse image.