Today marks a ''significant moment'' in New Zealand's history, the 50th anniversary of the move from pounds, shillings and pence to decimal currency, on July 10, 1967.
Prof Tom Brooking, of the University of Otago department of history and art history, said decimal currency was a more modern, more logical and ''more realistic'' currency, in keeping with that of some other trading nations such as Australia and the United States.
This currency was also a step away from the highly complex and ''idiosyncratic'' imperial monetary system, he said.
The new currency reflected ''quite a lot of nationalism'', which he did not want to exaggerate, but it also had some cumulative effect as New Zealanders continued to see distinctively New Zealand images on their currency.
Queen Elizabeth II features on the $20 note, and leading New Zealand figures Sir Edmund Hillary, Kate Sheppard, Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Ernest Rutherford appear, respectively, on the $5, $10, $50 and $100 notes.
Distinctive native New Zealand creatures, including the yellow-eyed penguin, as well as plants and landscapes appear on the reverse side of the notes.
In a recent statement, Ministry for Culture and Heritage Chief Historian Neill Atkinson said the advent of decimal currency showed the world that, while New Zealand retained strong links with Britain, ''our identity was more than colonial''.
David Gravenor, of the Dunedin Stamp Centre, said there was a continuing interest in acquiring New Zealand pre-decimal bank notes and coins, including by young people, either as memorabilia, or as an investment.
Prof Brooking said the relatively smooth introduction of decimal currency also marked an increase in the visibility of the then under-secretary for finance, future minister of finance and prime minister Rob Muldoon, who had the task of overseeing the change.
Decimal currency also came when ''a lot of big changes'' were going on, and historians talked of ''the end of the golden weather'', with the Korean War wool boom of the 1950s giving way to more uncertainties about the traditional British market, before Britain entered the European Economic Community in 1973.
This was also time of social change, including a Maori resurgence, and economic problems emerging in a period of ''Stagflation''.
