ABSTRACT
Until the 1930s Australia and New Zealand enjoyed what amounted to a currency union with Britain and most other Commonwealth countries. Exchange rates were fixed, and the British pound and gold were held by private banks as reserves and to back domestic note issue. This arrangement was abandoned during the Depression, when both Australia and New Zealand devalued their currencies, and in 1934 the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) was formed. These changes effectively ended the primacy of the link to the pound and ended what could be thought of as a form of currency union between Australia and New Zealand.
