Decimal Currency Conversion Television Commercials.

From the NFSA Collection 1965. Three television commercials that were used as part of a promotion and education campaign about the introduction of decimal currency in Australia on the 14th February 1966. All three commercial feature the tag line "Get With It".

[@hebneh]

It’s a fact that our brains can remember things better when they’re in the form of music - thus the little songs that appeared in these ads. And this is why commercials have used jingles for about 100 years now, since the the 1920s on the radio.

[@johnd8892]

The top prize for a jingle was even earlier. Funiculì, Funiculà’ was composed by Luigi Denza in 1880, to lyrics in Neapolitan dialect by Peppino Turco. The merry Neapolitan tune sings of a young man, who compares his sweetheart to a volcano and invites her to join him on a romantic walk up to the summit. It was written to mark the opening of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius - and within the year, the song had done the 19th-century equivalent of shooting to the top of the charts. By 1881, the sheet music had sold a million copies. A million copies of sheet music is massive even now let alone back then. All intended to be played by musically capable people and not just passively listened to. A performance from 2000 : kzbin.info/www/bejne/ip2ln6SqqbSefLc Hard to think of any jingle that would attract a singer of the calibre of Pavarotti and get such a response from a huge audience after well over 100 years. Nearly an unofficial Italian national anthem in the response it gets from Italians especially.

[@seanwilkinson3975]

I kinda wish I could travel back in time to visit pre-decimalized UK, SA, and AUS and struggle to figure out £SD and all the in-betweens like florins, and the fractions of a penny in the various farthings.

[@NFSAFilms]

That's some very specialised time travel.

[@johnd8892]

Go far enough back and the American colonies used £-s-d. New Zealand to just a few ears after Australia. Even 9 year olds in fourth grade were expected and able tp add up simple sums like £2-3-4 plus £1-17-9 back before 1966. To quote the likely lads from TV "Not many people know that 6 shillings and 8 pence is a third of a pound". Go back far enough and there were mites in circulation being one eighth of a penny. Back when a penny was worth so much to buy something useful. Before 200 years of inflation. Farthings gone in Australia much earlier than UK, but hapennies still around in 1966.

[@chessdude1977]

2 3 4 + 1 17 9 = 4d+9d = 13d = 1s and 1d carry the 1s + 3s + 17s = 21s = L1 + 1s carry L1 + L2 + L1 = L4 we have 4 pounds 1 schilling 1 pence 😄 simple lol 6s 8d you hit the mark on that one 😆

[@gerry9011]

And ever since then, the Australian Dollar has never been able to float...

[@MeFrom07]

This HD transfer looks great.

[@NFSAFilms]

Thanks.

[@allanblack8990]

The second commercial music was recorded at Natec Sound Studios in 1965, the late Ross Higgins was the male voice.

[@ken48827]

I remember the original tune was based on a stockman song. Do you remember the song it was based on?

[@emmarose4234]

@@ken48827, “Click Go the Shears”, if I recall correctly. (I’m American, so I’m prepared to be epically wrong.)

[@kiwitrainguy]

@@emmarose4234 You've got it absolutely correct.

[@michaelbryant1936]

I was not borne when we had the change over but I love these ads and now in 2016 we have a other change over in notes so exciting to be able to be a collector and see this happening in Australia

[@teresapurdie4958]

I have a sixpence coin from 1908

[@TheZodiacz]

Even a little old lady could tell this lot to zip it!

[@NFSAFilms]

+TheZodiacz If only she did.

[@seanzappulla71]

It's the 50th anaversary for desamal currency this year.

[@benjaminalexander8836]

@TheRenaissanceman65 he meant decimal!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Of course we Americans didn't have to go through any of this aside from whenever that happened at the start of our country, but I'm sure it was a very momentous occasion.

[@NFSAFilms]

All history now. Hopefully the trauma has subsided. We also changed from imperial measurements to metric; miles to kilometers, pounds to kilograms, Fahrenheit to Celsius etc....

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Except us Yanks, who have clung onto the Old System as we can't quite give Metric a full warm welcome up here.

[@OldsVistaCruiser]

The States were the first nation to go to decimal money, but the last to adopt the metric system!

[@pacon3519]

I still have a few round 50c coins

[@YamamotoTV2021]

One dollar equals exactly ten shillings; in one dollar, there are one hundred cents. Ten cents in one single shilling, and five cents equal sixpence.

[@lakersandi]

That is a terrible looking piano in the last ad. How do the keys even stick up that high?

[@Wim2600]

lakersandi And why does the girl’s piano stool float in mid-air?

[@emmarose4234]

Magic!!!

[@Languslangus]

Countries should change curencies more often to keep people on their toes.

[@Madaz]

hahaha love it

[@emmarose4234]

*KIDS!*

[@Make_Australia_British_Again]

Australia should’ve just decimalised the pound like the UK.

[@anglobostonian]

Ditto New Zealand.

[@Make_Australia_British_Again]

@@anglobostonian yes mate!!