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.

This was based on an older crowned bust by Australian sculptor Bertram Mackennal, used on the coinage of other British colonies and dominions.

Reverse designs were a matter of collaboration between the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, headed by Deputy Master Robert Johnson, and the New Zealand government.

Metcalfe and George Kruger Gray were experienced artists who had each previously designed coinage for several other British dominions and colonies.

Kruger Gray was asked to model a new pattern off of Metcalfe's base, in order to standardize the lettering of the coinage.

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

[11] Sutherland was highly critical of the tiki, describing it as a fertility charm inappropriate for the modern age, incorrectly believing the figure to represent a human foetus.

Coates ordered the design to be abandoned; however, in 1940, the hei-tiki motif would be re-used in essentially unmodified form for the halfpenny.

Although he experimented with individual meres at Coates's suggestion, he submitted a design crossing two of the clubs, reminiscent of his earlier Southern Rhodesian sixpence.

Coates initially protested the modification but conceded after Kruger Gray argued that a single mere would create a design that was lopsided and difficult to strike.

[14] By late 1933, the basic design had been accepted, and Kruger Gray created a final pattern incorporating traditional ornamentation.