Just have the $1 and $2 albums to fill, and my decimal sets will be up-to-date!
CC, we have found out what some of the coins and designs the Royal Australian Mint will be releasing in 2008. Hope you are putting away a few of those Presidents to pay/swap for the new issues.
The 2008 $1 mintmark coins will commemorative the centenary of the first Australian Coat of Arms 1908-1912. It will have mintmarks C, S, B and M with the S, B & M also being counterstamped at Shows on the portable press. The silver proof version will have a C mintmark instead of the usual no mintmark.
And there will be a special 50 cents to commemoratate the Centenary of Scouting in Australia.
Then there will be a second $1 Centenary of Rugby League $1
The recent 25c Alpine 2007/2008 mule - can anyone tell me if it is found in ALL of the coin packs that went to the petrol station chain or if some are dated 2007 and some 2008? All that went into circulation are dated 2007 but the packs have a coloured variety from what I hear. Thanks Wayne
So I still have the same question! Were these coins meant to be or was one or the other for a proof or mint set only? Or was this just a major mint boo-boo?
Hi Twoshadows, the incused flag variety die was suppose to be used for the Mint Set 50 cent coin but for some reason it was never used for that and the dies found their way into producing less than 200,000 circulation 50 cent coins. One might even consider them mules because the incised die was suppose to be used for all circulation coins. And when you consider less than 200,000 coins out of 16,630,000 is a mighty small mintage. Mint/Baby Mint sets totalled 133,512 50 cent coins and to date only the incised flag has been found.
The coin in the Proof and Baby Proof sets used a different die again. As the coin has a coloured pad printed flag, the actual surface under the colour is totally smooth and flat - no incused or incised lines and no stars at all. It was all painted on to the flat flag surface.
Rusty, If you read what I wrote above, you should be able to tell the RM 20c from the RAM 20c if they are of reasonable to high quality. Much harder to tell with very circulated coins.
Royal Flying Doctor Sunda Straight - HMAS Perth Sunda Straight - USS Houston Rugby World Cup Sydney to Athens Bicentenay of Tasmania Melb Comm Games - Queens Relay Commonwealth Nations
And I think I missed a couple more, but will need to look up my books to see.
Barry,
These are some of the $5 coin issues but they are not all Bi-metalic.
The $5 bi-metalic issues were:
1994 Women's Enfranchisement SA 1894-1994 in unc and proof 1996 Sir Donald Bradman Tribute in unc 1997 Sir Donald Bradman Tribute in unc from PNC 1998 Royal Flying Doctor Service 70 years of service in unc 2000 Phar Lap 1930 in unc 2002 Battle of Sunda Strait 1942-2002 in unc in HMAS Perth card and USS Houston card 2003 Rugby World Cup silver proof with selective gold overlay 2004 AFL Australia's Own Game silver proof with selective gold overlay
It is ashame the Royal Australian Mint has ceased production of the $5 with an inner metal core and outer metal ring. They weighed 10.6 grams and were 28.12 mm in diameter with an inner core ring of Aluminium bronze and the outer ring of austenitic stainless steel.
Oh, I forgot to mention the 2000 Mob of roos is also found as a mule where the obverse was struck using the 10 cent obverse die.
And the 2005 Proof Mob of Roos was also a mule error where the 2006 mob of roos reverse proof die was accidently paired with the 2005 obverse proof die. It has been found in less than thirty of the 2006 Proof sets.
The circulation issues are, 1984, 1985, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. Unless I am mistaken, the rest are NCLT and consist of, 1987, 1989 and 1990. Cheers.
The 1991 Mob was not actually issued for circulation. It was available at the Mint from the Visitors Gallery "mint your own" presses and in the Uncirculated Mint Set.
All of the above years and 2008 are also available in Aluminium Bronze Proof finish with the 2004 proof being a hologram image (very nice). From the Wedding sets you can get 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008 in Brilliant Uncirculated (specimen) finish. You can also get Sterling Silver Proof Mob of Roos for 1990 and 1991, Pure Silver Proof for 2004 and 2006 and Pure Gold Proof for 2006. There is also a Pure Silver 40mm proof dated 2004. In 1988, an Aboriginal Art style single Roo was issued for the Bicentenary of European Settlement. This is also available in proof. And sterling silver proof in two dates, 1988 and 1990. Another stylised mob of roos in pure silver date 2004 has a wavy or scrolly twelve pointed edge/rim.
Hope you have fun putting the collection together.
Just remember the 10 cents was struck at two different Mints in 1966 and 1981 and there are also some die changes giving two varieties in 1999 and 2001 at least.
If you want to collect every type including proof and metal types, there are the proof Copper Nickel 1966 to 2008 and also a sterling silver one in 1991, pure silver in 2003 to 2007 and pure gold in 2001, 2005 to 2007 and Brilliant Uncirculated (specimen) from 2002 to 2008. And there is the 1999 large 10c of the 1930 Penny reverse in proof silver.
The coins from the Royal Mint are a lot more difficult to detect from those produced by the RAM. If you can, get a set of RAM coins from Royal Australian Mint marked rolls or from the mint uncirculated set and use these to compare other coins with. Differences for the 1 cent and 2 cent seems to be the distance of the legend on the obverse from the rim. The Perth Mint 2 cent coins may also have a slighly different coppery colour and like in 1966-68 have the claw on the reverse shorter than that of Canberra but not as blunt as in 66-68. The 5 cents and 10 cents are quite difficult and the best way to get these coins from the Royal Mint is in Reserve Bank of Australia marked rolls. Mind you the RCM 5c also comes in RBA rolls too. As for the 20 cents, I have found the Queen on the obverse lacks detail to her eyebrow hair lines and the nostrils of the Platypus on the reverse are quite small. The left claw under the 2 which on the RCM coin is the half claw, on some of the RM coins can appear to be a half claw but under magnification and rotating the coin to the light, the claw tappers up instead of being a blunt half claw. The letters of the obverse legend are much more rounded than flat like the with the RCM coins. The 20c from the RAM has 4 claws, large nostrils to platypus, distinct eyebrow hair lines to Queen. The distances of the obverse text from the rim may also be a feature in discerning between mints.
I try and post some pics over the weekend.
The 50 cents is easy to tell in that all Coat of Arms were struck by the RAM and all Royal Wedding were struck by the RM in Wales.
Firstly, in 1981, the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra contracted the Royal Mint at Llantrisant, Wales to strike Australian coin dated 1981 in the following denominations, 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents and 50 cents (Royal Wedding design), the Royal Canadian Mint at Winnipeg, Canada to strike 5 cents and 20 cents, the Perth Mint at Perth, Western Australia to strike 2 cents and W.A. Stokes (Australasia) Ltd at Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to strike 10,048 of the 1982 $10 Commonwealth Games silver proof coins.
This was necessary because of a 13 week strike at the RAM in the second quarter of 1981.
The RAM did manage in the second half of 1981 to produce coin for circulation in 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c (Coat of Arms design) as well as the 6 coin collector uncirculated and proof sets, $200 gold uncirculated Royal Wedding and the 1982 $10 silver and $200 gold uncirculated and proof Commonwealth Games coins (1981-82 financial year).
With the circulation coins, mint of origin differences can be detected if coins are in reasonable quality and if one knows what to look for. Coins struck by the RCM are the easiest with the 5 cent having a distinctive obverse (two wavy lines to the lowest hair curl at the back of the neck) and the 20 cents having the very clear three and half claws reverse and flat text to the legend on the obverse. The platypus also has large nostrils similar to the 20 cents from the RAM.
The plastic capsules just pop out of the card. If you look at the capsule you will see how they open. You can then remove the coins and replace the capsules back into the cards and store them away in case you want them at a later date for the coins.
You may be able to get the 2001 Federation proof a lot cheaper than getting a whole set depending on which of the two varieties you already have. The Obverse die 1 (IRB spaced) is in the mayority of Proof Sets while Obverse die 2 (IRB joined) is mostly in the 3 coin State series proof sets.
I'm not sure if there are more than one obverse die (size) with the proof like in the uncirculated 1999 International Year of Older Persons dollar. Haven't looked at enough sets.
I have the 2005 End of WW2 gold proof and 2007 Surf Lifesavers gold proof dollars. They look great beside the Al Bronze and Silver proof versions. I had the 2005 set of dollars at the Brisbane ANDA Show - club members' display this year. I left them in their capsules though.
Show Posts
because the incised die was suppose to be used for all circulation coins. And when you consider less than 200,000 coins out of 16,630,000 is a mighty small mintage. Mint/Baby Mint sets totalled 133,512 50 cent coins and to date only the incised flag has been found.
