New Zealand - Money

New Zealand Dollar

At the time of our New Zealand tour, the New Zealand Dollar was only worth between .72 to .78 of a United States Dollar when converted. We found that although New Zealand refers to their currency as cents and dollars, there are a number of distinctions from a United States currency system. Most notable is that New Zealand no longer bothers themselves with single cents (pennies) and, in fact, five cent coins (nickels). We never came across such coins and we were never charged an odd amount when paying cash. In all cases applicable taxes were included in the posted prices and in most cases, prices were always rounded off to an even 10 cent figure. On one afternoon, we purchased sandwiches from a grocery. The receipt indicated that the total had been "rounded up" to the nearest 10 cent calculation.

At left is a New Zealand 5 dollar bill. Other common denominations available include, 10, 20, 50 and 100.

Click to view reverse side of 5 dollar bill.

The New Zealand Dollar is divided into 100 cents similar to the United States Dollar. It was introduced in 1967 to replace the New Zealand Pound, while New Zealand decimalized its currency. Note the "hole" in the 5 dollar bill above. It is actually covered by a holographic transparency making the currency very difficult to duplicate.

At left is a 1 dollar coin. I would commonly pay bills with 5 or 10 paper denominations, then trade coins in at the hotel when I collected a number of them.

Click to view reverse side of 1 dollar coin.

At left is New Zealand's 2 dollar coin. The 1 and 2 dollar coins came in handy for coin-operated laundry machines at some hotels.

Click to view reverse side of 2 dollar coin.

At left is a 20 cent coin featuring the image of a well-known Maori carving.

Click to view reverse side of 20 cent Maori coin.

Twenty cent coins minted prior to 1991 featured the kiwi bird as shown at left.

Click to view reverse side of 20 cent Kiwi coin.

The 10 cent coin at left shows an image of a Maori koruru, or carved head.

Click to view reverse side of 10 cent coin.

Not shown is a 50 cent coin.

New Zealand currency is issued by The Reserve Bank of New Zealand.