Australian Dollar (AUD)

The Australian dollar replaced the Australian pound in 1966 and has floated freely since 1983. Australia is a large exporter of iron ore, coal, and other raw materials, much of it to China, so the "Aussie" tends to rise and fall with commodity prices and with the health of the Chinese economy.

Australia introduced the world's first polymer (plastic) banknote in 1988, and all Australian notes have been polymer since the 1990s. The technology, which is harder to counterfeit and lasts longer than paper, has since been adopted by many other countries, including Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.