For many years after the first Australian colony being New South Wales, was founded in 1788.Australia did not have its own currency and had to rely on the coins of other countries. During the early days of the colony, goods such as wheat were sometimes used as a currency because of the shortage of coins.
Spanish dollars were sometimes cut into "pieces of eight", quarters, and then into 2/3 and 1/3 segments, with the 2/3 segments (1/6 of original coin) being "shillings" and the 1/3 segments (1/12 of original coin) "sixpences". In 1791 Governor Phillip of New South Wales fixed the value of the Spanish dollar to equal five shillings.
The settlers did have some George III one-penny coins, which were referred to as "Cartwheel pennies". These were the first British coins to be officially exported to the Australian colonies, and so can be considered Australia\'s first official coins. They were dated 1797 and 1799, with Britannia on one side and King George III on the other.
