money in New Zealand

While visiting in the U.S., I was struck by the difference in the money between the U.S. and New Zealand. New Zealand money is brightly colored. One side of the bills has native birds and the other side has people. But the biggest shock in returning to the U.S. was realizing that I had gotten used to life without pennies and nickels. The smallest coin in New Zealand is the ten cent coin. When paying cash, all prices are rounded up or down to the nearest ten cents. When paying by debit, the exact price in cents is debited from one's bank account. While in the U.S., carrying around all those pennies seemed so silly. I've read that Americans are sentimental about pennies and are not at all willing to get rid of them, even though it would save a lot of money not to have them in circulation. So here's a look at money in New Zealand.

Those coins are a two dollar coin, a one dollar coin, and then coins for fifty, twenty and ten cents. The bills are get slightly smaller as the amounts get smaller. Here's a view of the people on the bills, with the size decreases visible. (The poeple are Lord Rutherford of Nelson, Sir Aparama Ngata, Queen Elizabeth, Kate Sheppard, and Sir Edmund Hillary.)

The exchange rate between the New Zealand dollar and the U.S. dollar has fluctuated wildly in the two years we've been here. The New Zealand dollar is the fifth most widely traded currency in the world, because the interest rates here have historically been among the highest in the developed world. Since we've been there, the highest exchange rate was the New Zealand dollar being worth about 80 U.S. cents, and the lowest was just under fifty cents.