Australian Currency

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The Australian currency is the Australian dollar, or Aussie dollar, or in financial experts' speak: AUD, A$, AU$.

It is not paper money. All the bank notes are made from plastic. They are much nicer to touch, longer to use and hold much better in your wallet.

There are 5 different colourful, plastic bank notes that feature various images of Australian history, culture or environment.

They are the 5 - purple, 10 - blue, 20 - red, 50 - yellow and 100 - green notes.

There seem to be very few $100 notes in use. Probably because people use, increasingly, more debit or credit cards for various transactions, so a 100 note is not that useful any more.

australian money

The Australian currency was the first in the world to feature a complete series of plastic (polymer) notes. They are recyclable and much cleaner than paper money.

See here what Australian money can buy you.

Australian Coin Values

Our coin values are 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents and 1 and 2 dollars. You will not find any 1 or 2 cents coins.

You will also see that most prices do not end in multiples of 5 cents. But when you pay cash everything is rounded to the nearest 5 cents. So you'll pay $2.45 for a 1 kilo of bananas priced at $2.47.

Most coins show images of native animals of Australia:

  • the echidna - on the 5 cents coin,
  • the lyrebird - on the 10 cents,
  • the platypus - the 20 cents.

The Australian coat of arms features on the 50 cents coin.

All the "cents" coins are made of cupro-nickel and are silvery in colour.

There are five kangaroos on the 1 $ and an Aboriginal elder on the 2 dollar coins. The "dollar" coins are made of aluminium bronze and are gold in colour.

You may sometime hear the term "Australian gold coin". It is generally used to indicate money for small donations.

For example there are some events where the entry is free but it is nice to donate 1 or 2 dollars towards various worthy causes.

Australian Currency - Getting Stronger or...?

The Australian dollar exchange rate has strengthened a lot during the last decade.


Several factors are the culprits. Among them the mining boom, rapid growth of the Chinese economy which needs Australian resources, the European financial crisis.

Want to know more?

Here's where you can find weekly updates about Australia currency and where the dollar is going. Peter Lavelle, an economic writer with foreign exchange broker Pure Fx has the details for you.

Read his insights, ask him a question, or ask for a free quote if you plan to exchange some currencies.

Enjoy the savings.

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