WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.819 Imagine finding out that the crinkled spare change 00:00:03.819 --> 00:00:06.500 sitting in your desk drawer didn't just buy a 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:09.439 cup of coffee back in 1966. Right. But it actually 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:12.279 triggered one of the most massive indigenous 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:15.519 civil rights legal battles in the nation's history. 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:17.800 It completely shatters the illusion that money 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:20.179 is just like a neutral tool for buying things. 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:23.600 Exactly. We tend to view old currency as just 00:00:23.769 --> 00:00:26.949 useless paper, you know, an artifact of an older 00:00:26.949 --> 00:00:30.269 economic system. We rarely stop to actually interrogate 00:00:30.269 --> 00:00:32.810 the physical object itself. And that is exactly 00:00:32.810 --> 00:00:34.630 our mission today. Welcome to the Deep Dive. 00:00:34.869 --> 00:00:36.850 Glad to be here diving into this one with you. 00:00:37.109 --> 00:00:39.750 Today we are taking a defunct everyday piece 00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:43.189 of pocket change and really cracking it open 00:00:43.189 --> 00:00:45.509 to see what's inside. That's a fascinating story. 00:00:45.770 --> 00:00:47.969 It really is. We're exploring the layered history, 00:00:48.229 --> 00:00:50.909 the Australian $1 note. We've compiled the research 00:00:50.909 --> 00:00:53.490 detailing its design, its launch, and its incredibly 00:00:53.490 --> 00:00:55.649 controversial legacy. Which is quite a legacy 00:00:55.649 --> 00:00:57.590 for a piece of paper. Totally. We're going to 00:00:57.590 --> 00:01:00.270 see how a few inches of paper acted as a pocket 00:01:00.270 --> 00:01:03.579 -sized museum. OK, let's unpack this. To really 00:01:03.579 --> 00:01:06.519 understand the sheer weight placed on this specific 00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:09.019 piece of paper, we have to look at the environment 00:01:09.019 --> 00:01:11.500 it was born into. Right. Set the scene for us. 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:15.480 So the year is 1966. Australia is undergoing 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:18.780 a fundamental, continent -wide economic shift 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:21.719 known as decimalization. That's a huge deal. 00:01:21.870 --> 00:01:25.209 Massive. They are ripping out the old complicated 00:01:25.209 --> 00:01:28.430 British system of pounds, shillings, and pence 00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:32.709 and introducing a modern base 10 decimal system. 00:01:32.870 --> 00:01:34.569 So the old 10 shilling note is basically being 00:01:34.569 --> 00:01:37.430 retired. Exactly. And in its place, the brand 00:01:37.430 --> 00:01:40.290 new $1 note is introduced. Which is, you know, 00:01:40.329 --> 00:01:43.920 easy to say, but... You have to picture the logistical 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:45.760 nightmare of what that actually looked like for 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:47.980 the country. Oh, it was chaos. This wasn't just 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:49.739 flipping a switch on a banking app like you do 00:01:49.739 --> 00:01:52.939 today. You are physically replacing the representation 00:01:52.939 --> 00:01:55.219 of wealth for an entire nation. Armored trucks 00:01:55.219 --> 00:01:57.219 crisscrossing the continent. Printing presses 00:01:57.219 --> 00:01:59.400 running around the clock, swapping out the contents 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:02.420 of every cash register, every bank vault, and 00:02:02.420 --> 00:02:05.040 every citizen's wallet simultaneously. It was 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:08.210 a monumental physical undertaking. The government 00:02:08.210 --> 00:02:12.509 ended up printing around 1 .7 billion of these 00:02:12.509 --> 00:02:14.990 specific notes over the next 18 years. Wait, 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:18.770 1 .7 billion? Yeah, billion with a B. These were 00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:21.069 tangible objects, slightly larger than the bills 00:02:21.069 --> 00:02:24.490 you probably carry today. They were exactly 140 00:02:24.490 --> 00:02:27.830 by 70 millimeters. Wow, very precise. Printed 00:02:27.830 --> 00:02:31.009 on a durable cotton fiber blend. And you had 00:02:31.009 --> 00:02:33.710 to get this completely unfamiliar physical currency 00:02:33.710 --> 00:02:36.270 into the hands of millions of people. People 00:02:36.270 --> 00:02:38.590 who were probably already incredibly anxious 00:02:38.590 --> 00:02:40.710 about having to learn, you know, the new math 00:02:40.710 --> 00:02:42.969 of their daily lives. Absolutely. The anxiety 00:02:42.969 --> 00:02:45.250 was real. And if you take a magnifying glass 00:02:45.250 --> 00:02:48.250 to those 1 .7 billion notes, they actually document 00:02:48.250 --> 00:02:50.550 a shifting national identity in real time. Yes, 00:02:50.689 --> 00:02:52.789 the wording on the note itself. There's this 00:02:52.789 --> 00:02:55.150 subtle but massive change printed right there 00:02:55.150 --> 00:02:58.009 in the ink. Between its introduction in 1966 00:02:58.009 --> 00:03:01.050 and 1974, the front of the note carried a very 00:03:01.050 --> 00:03:03.349 specific title. Right. It read Commonwealth of 00:03:03.349 --> 00:03:06.659 Australia. They pumped out at least 680 million 00:03:06.659 --> 00:03:08.939 notes with that exact phrasing. A huge print 00:03:08.939 --> 00:03:12.599 run. But then, after 1974, the text changed. 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:16.020 They dropped the words Commonwealth of entirely. 00:03:16.099 --> 00:03:18.780 Just wiped them off. Yeah. For the rest of its 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:20.819 lifespan, which was over a billion notes printed, 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:24.479 it simply read Australia. That is one of those 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:27.400 details hiding in plain sight that carries enormous 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:30.120 geopolitical weight. It makes me think of like 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:33.060 a corporate brand refresh, you know, like when 00:03:33.060 --> 00:03:36.639 a tech company drops its clunky formal name to 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:39.551 sound more sleek and modern. Like dropping the... 00:03:39.550 --> 00:03:42.930 The in a name exactly like the Facebook just 00:03:42.930 --> 00:03:44.710 becoming Facebook. Well, I see what you're trying 00:03:44.710 --> 00:03:47.050 to do there But let's not reduce a sovereign 00:03:47.050 --> 00:03:50.169 nation's geopolitical evolution to a Silicon 00:03:50.169 --> 00:03:52.469 Valley marketing stunt Fair enough. Fair enough 00:03:52.469 --> 00:03:55.090 a tech company drops a word to sell more ads 00:03:55.370 --> 00:03:57.729 When a nation alters the text on its physical 00:03:57.729 --> 00:04:00.449 currency is making a formal declaration to its 00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:02.550 citizens and to the world about how it views 00:04:02.550 --> 00:04:04.870 itself. Oh, absolutely. Dropping the colonial 00:04:04.870 --> 00:04:08.770 title Commonwealth of is Australia actively stepping 00:04:08.770 --> 00:04:11.169 out of the shadow of the British Empire. It's 00:04:11.169 --> 00:04:13.770 making a statement. Exactly. It is asserting 00:04:13.770 --> 00:04:16.470 a distinct standalone presence on the global 00:04:16.470 --> 00:04:19.870 stage. Physical currency is a nation's ultimate 00:04:19.870 --> 00:04:22.149 calling card because it crosses borders and is 00:04:22.149 --> 00:04:25.180 handled by everyone every single day. That is 00:04:25.180 --> 00:04:27.839 a very fair point. The stakes are a little higher 00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:30.579 than a social media rebrand. Just a bit. But 00:04:30.579 --> 00:04:33.120 here is the massive contradiction in all of this. 00:04:33.740 --> 00:04:36.040 While the words on the note were changing to 00:04:36.040 --> 00:04:39.180 reflect a new, independent, modern Australia, 00:04:40.019 --> 00:04:42.279 the images and the security features they chose 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:46.120 to embed in this new money were heavily anchored 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:48.579 to the distant past. The visual language of the 00:04:48.579 --> 00:04:50.720 note was definitely fighting a tug of war with 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:52.800 the text. Let's look at the front of the note, 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:56.290 the obverse. The design was finalized in 1964 00:04:56.290 --> 00:04:58.689 by an artist named Gordon Andrews. A brilliant 00:04:58.689 --> 00:05:00.670 designer. And what is the centerpiece of this 00:05:00.670 --> 00:05:04.050 fresh modern decimal currency? A portrait of 00:05:04.050 --> 00:05:07.170 Queen Elizabeth II. Right. Specifically, a portrait 00:05:07.170 --> 00:05:09.910 of her wearing formal garter robes based on a 00:05:09.910 --> 00:05:12.410 photo by Douglas Class. Alongside her is the 00:05:12.410 --> 00:05:14.870 Australian coat of arms. Very traditional imagery. 00:05:15.310 --> 00:05:17.750 And then you have the anti -counterfeiting features. 00:05:18.170 --> 00:05:21.269 There was an upright internal metallic strip 00:05:21.269 --> 00:05:23.529 woven right into the paper. Which they actually 00:05:23.529 --> 00:05:26.730 moved to the left side later on in 1976. Oh, 00:05:26.930 --> 00:05:29.750 good detail. And there was also a prominent watermark 00:05:29.750 --> 00:05:32.149 of Captain James Cook. Both the metallic strip 00:05:32.149 --> 00:05:35.029 and the watermark are fascinating examples of 00:05:35.029 --> 00:05:37.970 analog security. How so? Well, the metallic strip 00:05:37.970 --> 00:05:40.209 isn't just printed on. It's a physical ribbon 00:05:40.209 --> 00:05:42.589 incorporated into the cotton fiber during the 00:05:42.589 --> 00:05:44.810 manufacturing process. So you can't just scan 00:05:44.810 --> 00:05:47.500 it. Right. If a counterfeiter tries to simply 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:50.199 photograph or chemically copy the note, the camera 00:05:50.199 --> 00:05:52.319 can't replicate that physical three -dimensional 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:54.519 disruption inside the paper itself. Well, wait, 00:05:54.519 --> 00:05:56.600 I have to challenge the logic of the watermark 00:05:56.600 --> 00:05:59.120 here. Go for it. I understand the need for security, 00:05:59.579 --> 00:06:03.240 obviously. But if decimalization is this massive 00:06:03.240 --> 00:06:06.139 leap into a modern independent future, breaking 00:06:06.139 --> 00:06:08.579 away from the old pound and shilling system... 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:12.319 Why reuse the exact same Captain James Cook watermark 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:15.519 that was used on the old outgoing pound banknotes? 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:17.660 It does seem counterintuitive. It feels like 00:06:17.660 --> 00:06:20.519 you're driving a brand new sports car, but demanding 00:06:20.519 --> 00:06:23.379 the dashboard be carved out of wood from an 18th 00:06:23.379 --> 00:06:26.480 century galleon. This raises an important question, 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:28.459 and it comes down to the underlying mechanics 00:06:28.459 --> 00:06:30.819 of fiat currency. We have to remember how money 00:06:30.819 --> 00:06:34.379 actually works. It is, at its core, a shared 00:06:34.379 --> 00:06:37.740 illusion. A piece of cotton fiber has no intrinsic 00:06:37.740 --> 00:06:40.720 value. It only works because an entire society 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:43.980 collectively agrees to trust it. And as we mentioned, 00:06:44.300 --> 00:06:47.620 a massive systemic transition like decimalization 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:49.879 makes people terrified. Because suddenly the 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:52.160 value of their labor and their groceries, it 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:55.430 all feels completely unmoored. Exactly. If you 00:06:55.430 --> 00:06:57.529 change the underlying math of the economy, the 00:06:57.529 --> 00:06:59.350 size of the paper, the colors, and the name of 00:06:59.350 --> 00:07:02.129 the currency all at once, you risked a catastrophic 00:07:02.129 --> 00:07:04.370 crisis of confidence. People might look at this 00:07:04.370 --> 00:07:06.470 new dollar and feel like they are holding monopoly 00:07:06.470 --> 00:07:09.250 money. Precisely. They need a psychological anchor. 00:07:10.029 --> 00:07:12.990 Ah. So the old watermark isn't a lack of imagination, 00:07:13.110 --> 00:07:16.129 it's a calculated bridge. It is a vital signal 00:07:16.129 --> 00:07:19.339 of continuity. by carrying over the Captain Cook 00:07:19.339 --> 00:07:22.300 watermark from the old pound notes and prominently 00:07:22.300 --> 00:07:24.699 featuring the Queen in garter robes. Which is 00:07:24.699 --> 00:07:27.839 a very specific choice. Extremely. It represents 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:31.480 the absolute highest most ancient order of chivalry 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:33.959 in the British honor system. The government is 00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:36.980 sending a subliminal message there. They're telling 00:07:36.980 --> 00:07:40.519 the public, yes, the math is new, but the underlying 00:07:40.519 --> 00:07:43.680 sovereign authority is the same. Exactly. The 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:46.160 history and the trust backing this paper remains 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:49.259 completely unbroken. You combine that psychological 00:07:49.259 --> 00:07:51.860 security with the physical security of the woven 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:54.699 metallic thread, and you have an object designed 00:07:54.699 --> 00:07:57.699 to project unshakable stability. It makes total 00:07:57.699 --> 00:07:59.759 sense when you frame it as a psychological tool. 00:08:00.180 --> 00:08:02.399 You need the ancient symbols to validate the 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:05.199 new math. You really do. But this sets up a genuinely 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:07.839 shocking duality. Because if the front of the 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:10.959 $1 note is this calculated masterpiece of Western 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:13.600 tradition, British monarchy, and colonial history, 00:08:13.660 --> 00:08:16.360 you flip that note over and you're staring at 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:19.399 a completely different ancient and deeply controversial 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:22.379 story. The reverse of the note is where this 00:08:22.379 --> 00:08:25.540 specific piece of currency completely transcends 00:08:25.540 --> 00:08:28.139 economics and enters the realm of cultural history 00:08:28.139 --> 00:08:30.279 and civil rights. So on the back of the note, 00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:33.820 the designers decided to include a piece of contemporary 00:08:33.820 --> 00:08:36.960 Aboriginal art. Yes. This specific artwork was 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:39.980 created by a Yongu artist named David Malangi. 00:08:40.820 --> 00:08:43.100 Alongside his work, the design also featured 00:08:43.100 --> 00:08:46.100 a selection of ancient rock art. A group of four 00:08:46.100 --> 00:08:48.940 figures, to be precise. Taken from Injalak Mountain 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:52.519 in West Arnhem Land. The intention from the designers 00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:55.080 was likely to showcase a uniquely Australian 00:08:55.080 --> 00:08:57.759 visual identity on the back, something distinct 00:08:57.759 --> 00:08:59.519 from the heavy British imagery on the front. 00:08:59.879 --> 00:09:02.259 But David Malangi's art wasn't just a decorative 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:04.960 pattern they found pleasing. The research outlines 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:07.679 the profound cultural reality of this specific 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:10.080 piece. It's deeply significant. It depicts the 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:12.840 mortuary feast of one of Malangi's creation ancestors, 00:09:13.340 --> 00:09:16.529 a figure named Gun Mirangu. The great ancestral 00:09:16.529 --> 00:09:19.490 hunter. Right. For the Manharngu people, this 00:09:19.490 --> 00:09:21.990 specific narrative is attributed as the very 00:09:21.990 --> 00:09:24.850 origin of their mortuary rites. We aren't talking 00:09:24.850 --> 00:09:26.929 about a simple drawing here. We are talking about 00:09:27.210 --> 00:09:31.049 a highly sacred ancestral text. That distinction 00:09:31.049 --> 00:09:33.990 is crucial. In Western art, a painting is often 00:09:33.990 --> 00:09:37.090 just an aesthetic expression. But in indigenous 00:09:37.090 --> 00:09:40.590 culture, a design like this is a profound expression 00:09:40.590 --> 00:09:43.230 of spiritual lineage. It means so much more. 00:09:43.370 --> 00:09:45.789 It acts almost like a title deed and a religious 00:09:45.789 --> 00:09:48.990 sacrament combined. It is a document of historical 00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:52.169 identity governed by incredibly strict cultural 00:09:52.169 --> 00:09:54.730 laws regarding who possesses the authority to 00:09:54.730 --> 00:09:56.899 view it, let alone reproduce it. Here's where 00:09:56.899 --> 00:10:00.059 it gets really interesting. This deeply sacred 00:10:00.059 --> 00:10:02.580 artwork mapping the origin of these mortuary 00:10:02.580 --> 00:10:05.419 rights was mass produced on the national currency 00:10:05.419 --> 00:10:08.059 entirely without David Malanke's knowledge. It 00:10:08.059 --> 00:10:10.019 is a breathtaking violation when you actually 00:10:10.019 --> 00:10:11.940 break down what happened. Put yourself in his 00:10:11.940 --> 00:10:14.960 position. You're listening to this. Imagine meticulously 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:17.419 crafting something that is the most sacred personal 00:10:17.419 --> 00:10:19.919 religious origin story of your family's history. 00:10:20.179 --> 00:10:23.039 Unthinkable to have it stolen. And then a year 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:25.190 later. You discovered that the federal government 00:10:25.190 --> 00:10:27.830 has casually scooped it up and printed it on 00:10:27.830 --> 00:10:30.509 a billion pieces of everyday cash. People are 00:10:30.509 --> 00:10:32.789 crumpling it up, shoving it in their wallets, 00:10:33.090 --> 00:10:34.870 trading it for a beer. And the government didn't 00:10:34.870 --> 00:10:37.269 even bother to tell you they took it, let alone 00:10:37.269 --> 00:10:39.570 ask for your permission. What's fascinating here 00:10:39.570 --> 00:10:42.860 is, well, tell me how this clash happened. What's 00:10:42.860 --> 00:10:46.039 fascinating here is how perfectly and tragically 00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:48.659 this encapsulates a monumental clash of systems. 00:10:49.379 --> 00:10:51.879 On one side, you have the relentless Western 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:54.639 machinery of a modern state. You have central 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:56.960 bankers and graphic designers tasked with the 00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.399 mass production of fiat currency. Just doing 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:02.080 their jobs in their eyes. Right. They are operating 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.059 entirely on a paradigm where art is just a graphic 00:11:05.059 --> 00:11:07.240 element to be utilized for a national branding 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:10.419 project. They likely saw a reproduction of Malangi's 00:11:10.419 --> 00:11:12.419 work, thought it looked appropriate, Australian 00:11:12.419 --> 00:11:14.639 and simply absorbed it into the bureaucratic 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:17.200 machinery. They just treated it like public domain 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:20.639 clip art. Like a picture of a kangaroo or a tree. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:24.019 Precisely. The Western system of mass production 00:11:24.019 --> 00:11:27.240 blindly collided with an ancient, sophisticated 00:11:27.240 --> 00:11:30.080 system of cultural ownership. Such a massive 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:32.980 blind spot. The government operated on the assumption 00:11:32.980 --> 00:11:35.740 that indigenous culture was simply ethnographic 00:11:35.740 --> 00:11:38.879 flavor for the taking, completely failing to 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:41.519 recognize that this image was intellectual property 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:45.340 and sacred inheritance. And when Longi discovered 00:11:45.340 --> 00:11:49.159 this, it caused an absolute uproar. The fallout 00:11:49.159 --> 00:11:51.879 was massive. As it should have been. The Reserve 00:11:51.879 --> 00:11:54.259 Bank quickly realized they couldn't just sweep 00:11:54.259 --> 00:11:58.279 this under the rug or ignore him. In 1967, just 00:11:58.279 --> 00:12:00.720 a year after the note was released, they were 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:03.139 forced to publicly acknowledge David Malangi 00:12:03.139 --> 00:12:06.320 as the artist. A huge step. And this issue went 00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:08.419 all the way up the chain of command. The governor 00:12:08.419 --> 00:12:11.440 of the Reserve Bank himself, H .C. Coombs, personally 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:13.460 intervened to handle the matter. The fact that 00:12:13.460 --> 00:12:15.419 the governor of the central bank had to step 00:12:15.419 --> 00:12:17.919 in demonstrates that they recognize the gravity 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:19.879 of the situation. And they couldn't ignore it. 00:12:19.899 --> 00:12:21.980 This wasn't treated as a minor administrative 00:12:21.980 --> 00:12:24.720 typo. It was a national, cultural and political 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:28.340 crisis. So after Coombs intervenes, Malangi is 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:30.940 ultimately given financial compensation and he 00:12:30.940 --> 00:12:33.320 also receives a specially struck medal. Right. 00:12:33.620 --> 00:12:38.299 But looking at how institutions operate. I have 00:12:38.299 --> 00:12:41.299 to ask, was this just the Reserve Bank trying 00:12:41.299 --> 00:12:44.279 to quickly make a PR nightmare disappear? You 00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:46.720 know the playbook. Cut a check. Take a photo 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:48.759 with a medal and hope the newspaper headlines 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:51.299 fade by the weekend. If we connect this to the 00:12:51.299 --> 00:12:53.720 bigger picture, the answer is a definitive no. 00:12:53.820 --> 00:12:56.220 Oh, really? This was not just a quiet settlement 00:12:56.220 --> 00:12:59.039 to make a problem go away. The research explicitly 00:12:59.039 --> 00:13:01.679 highlights that this specific intervention and 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:04.200 payment by the Reserve Bank to David Malangi 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:07.620 actually ignited the entire movement for Aboriginal 00:13:07.620 --> 00:13:10.360 copyright issues in Australia. That is incredible. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:12.879 It was an absolute watershed moment in the legal 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:15.519 system. Before this collision over the $1 note, 00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:17.600 the Western legal framework in Australia had 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:20.179 largely failed to recognize, let alone protect, 00:13:20.980 --> 00:13:23.000 Indigenous cultural and intellectual property. 00:13:23.230 --> 00:13:26.029 Institutions routinely treated indigenous art 00:13:26.029 --> 00:13:29.389 as public domain material. By forcing the central 00:13:29.389 --> 00:13:31.809 bank to acknowledge authorship, provide financial 00:13:31.809 --> 00:13:34.570 compensation, and formally recognize his ownership 00:13:34.570 --> 00:13:38.210 of the design, Malangi set a concrete legal precedent. 00:13:38.460 --> 00:13:41.019 So a piece of pocket change accidentally triggered 00:13:41.019 --> 00:13:43.840 a massive civil rights turning point. Yes. The 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:46.379 fight for indigenous copyright in Australia was 00:13:46.379 --> 00:13:48.360 sparked by the back of a one dollar bill. It 00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:50.980 forced the Western legal system to finally begin 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:53.340 grappling with concepts of communal ownership 00:13:53.340 --> 00:13:56.580 and sacred imagery. That single oversight by 00:13:56.580 --> 00:13:59.200 the currency designers laid the groundwork for 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:02.259 decades of subsequent legal battles and rights 00:14:02.259 --> 00:14:05.600 advocacy for indigenous artists. It is genuinely 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:08.899 mind boggling how much history, much geopolitical 00:14:08.899 --> 00:14:11.259 weight and how much legal precedent is packed 00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:14.840 into this little 140 by 70 millimeter cotton 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:17.039 fiber rectangle. It's dense with history. You 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:18.840 have the continuity of the British crown. You 00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:20.940 have the evolution of a nation dropping its colonial 00:14:20.940 --> 00:14:23.340 title. And you have the catalyst for aboriginal 00:14:23.340 --> 00:14:26.019 copyright law, all coexisting on one piece of 00:14:26.019 --> 00:14:28.200 paper on your wallet, which naturally leads me 00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:31.580 to ask with so much profound cultural weight 00:14:31.580 --> 00:14:34.259 attached to it, why did the government eventually 00:14:34.259 --> 00:14:37.519 decide to kill it off? As is almost always the 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:39.679 case with the machinery of government, the end 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:43.639 came down to cold, hard, unromantic pragmatism. 00:14:43.940 --> 00:14:47.000 The demise of the dollar note. The source outlines 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:50.639 that on Monday, May 13th, 1984, the paper note 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:53.419 was officially retired. And replaced by the gold 00:14:53.419 --> 00:14:55.519 -colored one dollar coin that Australians use 00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:59.000 today. 18 years after it acted as the great psychological 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:02.299 shock absorber for decimalization. Its run was 00:15:02.299 --> 00:15:04.940 over. And the reason is entirely driven by logistics 00:15:04.940 --> 00:15:08.169 and cost. A $1 denomination has an incredibly 00:15:08.169 --> 00:15:10.549 high velocity of circulation. Meaning it changes 00:15:10.549 --> 00:15:12.929 hands constantly. Exactly. It buys a newspaper. 00:15:13.210 --> 00:15:15.370 It pays for a coffee. It gets shoved into a sweaty 00:15:15.370 --> 00:15:17.769 pocket. It gets crumpled in a cash register drawer. 00:15:18.129 --> 00:15:19.850 It accidentally goes through the washing machine. 00:15:20.070 --> 00:15:22.110 Even a durable cotton blend can only take so 00:15:22.110 --> 00:15:24.129 many folds before it literally disintegrates. 00:15:24.470 --> 00:15:27.490 The lifespan of a heavily used low denomination 00:15:27.490 --> 00:15:30.580 paper note is incredibly short. The government 00:15:30.580 --> 00:15:32.759 was hemorrhaging money constantly running the 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:35.100 printing presses just to replace the notes that 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:36.740 were falling apart in people's hands. But a coin 00:15:36.740 --> 00:15:39.519 just makes more sense. Right. A metal coin can 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:41.919 circulate through the economy for decades with 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:45.100 barely any wear and tear. It is vastly more cost 00:15:45.100 --> 00:15:48.039 effective. The machinery of the state doesn't 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:50.120 care about the rich history printed on the paper 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:52.799 if the paper keeps ripping in half. So what does 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:55.620 this all mean? for you, the listener, right now. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.159 Let's say you are cleaning out a grandparent's 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:00.379 attic, or you're digging through an old box of 00:16:00.379 --> 00:16:05.279 travel souvenirs, and you find a crisp 1966 Australian 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:08.779 $1 note. A lucky find. What do you actually do 00:16:08.779 --> 00:16:11.409 with it? Well, functionally speaking, it remains 00:16:11.409 --> 00:16:14.250 legal tender. You can technically still redeem 00:16:14.250 --> 00:16:16.710 these notes at their face value by walking into 00:16:16.710 --> 00:16:19.529 the Reserve Bank of Australia or almost any commercial 00:16:19.529 --> 00:16:22.070 bank. But hold on face value. That means you 00:16:22.070 --> 00:16:24.330 walk in with this incredible historical artifact 00:16:24.330 --> 00:16:27.610 and they will just hand you a single modern one 00:16:27.610 --> 00:16:30.620 dollar coin in return. That is correct. To the 00:16:30.620 --> 00:16:33.179 bank, it is simply one unit of currency. Ouch. 00:16:33.379 --> 00:16:36.879 However, you absolutely should not do that. Numismatists, 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:39.159 the formal term for currency collectors, will 00:16:39.159 --> 00:16:41.480 pay a significantly higher price for these notes 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:44.320 on the open market. I would hope so. The actual 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:47.759 value depends entirely on the age and the condition 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:51.500 of your specific note. A pristine, uncirculated 00:16:51.500 --> 00:16:55.039 1966 note carrying the Commonwealth of Australia 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:58.299 text is going to fetch a much higher premium 00:16:58.299 --> 00:17:01.779 than a crumpled, faded note from 1980. So the 00:17:01.779 --> 00:17:04.240 golden rule is definitely don't take it to the 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:06.400 bank to buy a candy bar. Keep it far away from 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:08.940 a cash register. This has been such a wild journey. 00:17:09.339 --> 00:17:11.640 We started with the incredibly simple premise 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:14.380 of examining a piece of obsolete pocket change. 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:16.599 And look where it took us. We watched it act 00:17:16.599 --> 00:17:18.980 as the vital psychological anchor for an entire 00:17:18.980 --> 00:17:21.660 nation during the terrifying transition of decimalization 00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:25.160 in 1966. We saw it act as a real -time canvas 00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:28.140 for shifting national identity as Australia slowly 00:17:28.140 --> 00:17:30.599 dropped its colonial title. A true timeline in 00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:34.009 paper form. And most importantly, we uncovered 00:17:34.009 --> 00:17:37.910 how a massive, blind institutional theft of David 00:17:37.910 --> 00:17:40.710 Malangji's sacred ancestral artwork accidentally 00:17:40.710 --> 00:17:43.450 became the spark that ignited indigenous copyright 00:17:43.450 --> 00:17:45.930 rights. It really challenges our perception of 00:17:45.930 --> 00:17:48.170 the everyday objects we interact with. And I 00:17:48.170 --> 00:17:49.849 think there's a final thought worth pondering 00:17:49.849 --> 00:17:52.230 here that builds on everything we've just discussed 00:17:52.230 --> 00:17:54.670 about the physical nature of money. Oh, I'm listening. 00:17:54.859 --> 00:17:57.380 We spent this entire time talking about how the 00:17:57.380 --> 00:17:59.700 physical reality of this note, the cotton fiber, 00:18:00.059 --> 00:18:03.380 the woven metallic thread, the specific ink dropping 00:18:03.380 --> 00:18:05.680 the word Commonwealth, the physical printing 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:08.299 of Milanki's sacred art, acted as a tangible 00:18:08.299 --> 00:18:11.259 record of society's values, its struggles, and 00:18:11.259 --> 00:18:13.819 its identity at a very specific moment in time. 00:18:13.980 --> 00:18:16.200 It truly was a pocket -sized museum. Exactly. 00:18:16.440 --> 00:18:19.240 But today, we are rapidly accelerating toward 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:22.059 a completely cashless society. We tap our phones, 00:18:22.220 --> 00:18:24.220 we wave our smartwatches, we use credit cards. 00:18:24.170 --> 00:18:27.289 money is increasingly becoming nothing more than 00:18:27.289 --> 00:18:29.849 invisible ones and zeros sitting on a server. 00:18:30.069 --> 00:18:32.809 Right, it's totally frictionless. It is frictionless, 00:18:32.829 --> 00:18:36.250 but it is also invisible. Think about the irony 00:18:36.250 --> 00:18:39.549 of face value. A bank only gives you a coin for 00:18:39.549 --> 00:18:42.329 this history, but when physical currency disappears 00:18:42.329 --> 00:18:45.210 entirely, what happens to that pocket -sized 00:18:45.210 --> 00:18:47.950 museum? Wow, yeah. A banking app doesn't have 00:18:47.950 --> 00:18:50.769 a watermark. A digital transaction doesn't carry 00:18:50.769 --> 00:18:53.900 an engraving of an ancestral story. When our 00:18:53.900 --> 00:18:56.660 money loses its physical form, we might be losing 00:18:56.660 --> 00:18:59.599 one of the most democratic, widely circulated 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:03.039 canvases for recording who we are, what we value, 00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:06.039 and how our society is changing. It makes you 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:08.180 wonder what future historians will actually have 00:19:08.180 --> 00:19:09.900 left to hold in their hands when they try to 00:19:09.900 --> 00:19:12.240 understand us. What a brilliant question to leave 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.480 off on. What happens when the museum becomes 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:16.509 invisible? I love that. It's something to think 00:19:16.509 --> 00:19:18.130 about next time you tap your card. Thank you 00:19:18.130 --> 00:19:20.049 so much for joining us on this deep dive. To 00:19:20.049 --> 00:19:21.789 you listening, next time you're emptying your 00:19:21.789 --> 00:19:23.950 pockets or sorting through loose change, take 00:19:23.950 --> 00:19:26.690 a second look. You never know what kind of history 00:19:26.690 --> 00:19:29.109 you might be holding. Keep questioning the everyday 00:19:29.109 --> 00:19:31.450 objects around you, and we will see you next 00:19:31.450 --> 00:19:31.710 time.