Denomination (currency)

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When dealing with money, denomination is the value of the individual currency.

For example a one dollar bill, a 100 dollar bill, a penny and a quarter are all different denominations of money. A one dollar bill and a one dollar coin are the same denomination as they are the same value.

Monetary union[change | change source]

When countries form a monetary union, redenomination may be required and the conversion ratio is often not a nice even number, or even less than 1.

New unit = x Old unit year Monetary union
Austro-Hungarian krone = 0.5 gulden/forint 1892 Latin Monetary Union
euro = 0.787564 Irish pound 1999/2002 Eurozone
euro = 40.3399 Luxembourgish francs 1999/2002 Eurozone
This table is not exhaustive.

Decimalisation[change | change source]

When countries that had a "pound (£) - shilling (s) - pence (d)" (£sd) currency system converted to a system which had pounds (£) and pennies (p) or dollars ($) and cents (¢) it was called decimalisation. In the £sd system, £1 = 20s and 1s = 12d, so £1 = 240d. However in the new systems £1 = 100p or $1 = 100¢ or 100c - a decimal-based system, hence the word "decimalised".

Country New unit = x Old unit = New minor unit year
Australia Australian dollar = 0.5 Australian pound = 100¢ 1966
Ireland Irish pound = 1.0 Irish pound = 100p 1971
New Zealand New Zealand dollar = 0.5 New Zealand pound = 100¢ 1967
South Africa South African rand = 0.5 South African pound = 100c 1961
United Kingdom British pound = 1.0 British pound = 100p 1971
This table is not exhaustive.

Other pages[change | change source]