Large amounts of the devalued Australian currency began to flood into New Zealand, eventually making up 30-40% of all coinage in circulation by early 1933.

[9] In July 1933, Coates appointed a Coinage Design Committee, composed of various local artists alongside members of the New Zealand Numismatic Society.

This new committee took significant issue with the approved coinage designs, describing the ships on Metcalfe's and Kruger Gray's florin as unrepresentative of those used in New Zealand history.

The Design Committee instead requested a naturalistic rendering of the kiwi, previously featured in an abstract fashion on a pattern shilling, to be used as the central motif of the florin reverse.

The committee considered it important for the florin to feature New Zealand's national bird, as it was proposed as the base coin of a future decimalised coinage system.

[5]Kruger Gray continued work on the Advisory Committee's approved design, rendering the ships smaller and writing "TWO SHILLINGS" in lieu of "FLORIN" at the base of the reverse.

By August, the Advisory Committee decided to continue onward with the original designs, citing the urgent need for domestic coinage and the delay any such redesign would cause.

Privately, the Advisory Committee aimed to stall until Forbes' return to New Zealand on 20 September, upon which Coates would lose acting ministerial powers and work could continue on the original designs.

However, Forbes ultimately conceded to Coates and the Coinage Design Committee upon his return to New Zealand, alerting the Royal Mint in early October to continue with the redesign.

[5] The Royal Mint originally planned to directly transfer the pattern shilling design to the florin, preserving the kowhaiwhai motif for consistency with the half-crown.

This bird faced left with its head bowed, a horizon line was added to the relief, and "FLORIN" returned as the coin's inscribed denomination.

Johnson took issue with the placement of Kruger Gray's initials, writing that the design looked as if the kiwi was "suffering from so violent a need to [defecate] that he had propelled the pellet out with considerable violence".

The florin's reverse design would be unmodified until decimalisation in 1967, and its obverse shared the renderings of the British monarchs featured on all other New Zealand coinage.

[5] Ethnologist Johannes Andersen, quoted in Dominion, described the florin as particularly well-designed, with the hairy feathers and bristles of the kiwi depicted faithfully; however, he suggested the horizontal ground was not apparent in the design, and should be stippled to produce a more pronounced effect.