The Australian 5 dollar note was first issued in 1967, one year after the currency was changed from the Australian pound to the Australian dollar on 14 February 1966. It was a new denomination, as the pound system had no £2½, with a new mauve colouration.

Statistics

According to Reserve Bank statistics, at the end of June 2006 there was a net value of $572 million in $5 notes in circulation, with a 1.5% cash value of all issued currency. Actual banknotes in circulation account for 13.3% of all denominations, or 114 million banknotes.

Since the start of issuance there have been sixteen signature combinations, of which the 1967 issue is of the greatest value, issued for two years only; and the 1990 Fraser/Higgens being issued for less than a year.

From 1967 to 1974, the main title identifying the country was "Commonwealth of Australia" and there were 195,504,000 notes issued in its life. This was subsequently changed to "Australia" until the end of the issuance of paper currency for this denomination in 1992 with 978,068,318 of these notes being issued.

Design

The paper design included a watermark in the white field of Captain james cook , the watermark was also used in the last issue of pound banknotes. A metallic strip, first near the centre of the note, then from 1976 moved to the left side on the obverse of the note.