Exactly fifty years ago today, a group of us including Rafflesians Teo Hock Hin (Roy), Teo Oon Hock, Khoo Pong Tiah (Paul) and Mak Fong Keng (from RGS) landed in Sydney with much excitement and enthusiasm to pursue various courses under the Colombo Plan Scholarships.
The locals were also looking forward to the day - no, not for our arrival, as Asian students in those days were more of curiosities than anything else, but to the Decimal Currency Day when the old imperial currency system of pounds, shillings and pence (and other denominations) was to be replaced with dollars and cents.
Of course we were quite familiar with the British currency for we were required to learn them during our school days under colonial administration, even though Singapore was mercifully given the decimal currency right from the beginning of British rule. But just like everybody else in Australia, we had to learn to cope with the inter-conversion of the two currencies during changeover years.
As Australia marks the half century of currency change, we look back at some fond memories!
O
The locals were also looking forward to the day - no, not for our arrival, as Asian students in those days were more of curiosities than anything else, but to the Decimal Currency Day when the old imperial currency system of pounds, shillings and pence (and other denominations) was to be replaced with dollars and cents.
Of course we were quite familiar with the British currency for we were required to learn them during our school days under colonial administration, even though Singapore was mercifully given the decimal currency right from the beginning of British rule. But just like everybody else in Australia, we had to learn to cope with the inter-conversion of the two currencies during changeover years.
As Australia marks the half century of currency change, we look back at some fond memories!
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| Australia's first fifty cent coin. |
O
