Currency lads and lasses (collectively known as currency or the currency) were the first generations of native-born white Australians. They were the children of the British settlers and

convicts A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

who arrived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, beginning with the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...

in 1788.Austral English
''A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases And Usages'', 1898, by Edward E Morris, accessed 2 March 2013

Origin

In the early years of the

Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...

, the term "currency" was used to refer to any money other than

pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

, which was the only

legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in pa ...

. Owing to a shortage of sterling, "currency" circulated freely, but was not always accepted – the term carried implications of illegality, inferior quality, and subordination. By analogy, native-born colonials came to be known as "currency", in contrast to the British-born "sterling". The first reference in print to the native-born being called "currency" was in the ''

Sydney Gazette ''The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser'' was the first newspaper printed in Australia, running from 5 March 1803 until 20 October 1842. It was a semi-official publication of the government of New South Wales, authorised by Governo ...

'' of 13 September 1822, in a letter signed by "Lydia Languish" calling for more social events to be organised for "currency lasses".Molony (2000), p. 25.

Usage

As applied to people rather than money, the term originally had derogatory connotations like Ben– by the early 1820s, "currency had stuck for male and female native-born and everyone knew what it implied". However, it was soon

reclaimed Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lak ...

by the native-born as a positive term, in order to distinguish themselves from more recent arrivals.Molony (2000), p. 25. In ''Two Years in New South Wales'', published in 1827, Peter Miller Cunningham wrote: "Our colonial-born brethren are best known here by the name of ''Currency'', in contradistinction to ''Sterling'', or those born in the mother-country. The name was originally given by a facetious paymaster of the 73rd Regiment quartered here–the pound currency being at that time inferior to the

." In 1832,

Horatio Wills Horatio Spencer Howe Wills (5 October 1811 – 17 October 1861) was an Australian pastoralist, politician and newspaper owner. Biography Born in Sydney in the British penal colony of New South Wales, Wills grew up on George Street with hi ...

– born in Sydney in 1811 to a convict father – founded ''The Currency Lad''. It was "the first newspaper published in the colony which specifically set out to protect the interests of the native-born". "The currency" as a whole were usually separated according to gender as "currency lads" and "currency lasses." In 1849, J. P. Townsend wrote: "whites born in the colony...are...called 'the currency;' and thus the 'Currency Lass' is a favourite name for colonial vessels," and, according to Edward E. Morris, also for hotels. In 1852, the term was still being used: "A singular disinclination to finish any work completely, is a striking characteristic of colonial craftsmen, at least of the 'currency' or native-born portion."''My Home in Tasmania'', vol. i. p. 6, 1852, by Mrs. Meredith However, when Morris published his ''Austral English'' in 1898, he indicated that the term was obsolete.

References

External links

* ebook o
''Sally: The Tale of a Currency Lass''
by

J. H. M. Abbott John Henry Macartney Abbott (1874 – 1953) was an Australian novelist and poet who was born in Haydonton, Murrurundi, New South Wales in 1874. Early life He was the eldest son of son of (Sir) Joseph Palmer Abbott and his first wife Matilda ...

a
Project Gutenberg Australia
Australian English European Australian Social history of Australia Colonial Australia

Origin

Usage

See also

References

Further reading

External links