This week marks a momentous Australian anniversary. Fifty years ago, the name on the money in your pocket hung in the balance. It could have been the dollah, the dinkum, the dauler or the deena. You know how it all worked out but there was a right royal stumble on the way.

In the wake of the announcement in April 1963 that pounds, shillings and pence were to be ditched in favour of decimal coinage, the whole country had an opinion about what the new money should be called. The kwid, the champ, the deci-mate and even the hughes were among hundreds of names suggested.

There were other, more tempered possibilities - the austral and the emu had their supporters - but one name was the standout, the obvious and best choice, and on June 5, Treasurer Harold Holt revealed all. Our currency would be, he told Parliament and an expectant nation, the royal.

Holt said that after a ''close and careful examination'', not one of the other possible contenders had been able to beat it.

None ''would be fully acceptable to the public'', he said. According to the Treasurer, they lacked ''such desirable attributes as brevity and pleasing sound''.