One thing you don't see too often when you're looking at error coins are coins with two errors or double error coins. They are rare enough that if you're at all interested in collecting error coins that you should snaffle up double error coins whenever you happen to see one. In my time collecting and looking at error coins I can recall seeing exactly 4 double error coins. I dont count double clipped planchet error coins as double error coins as they are really just a class of clipped planchet error.

The double error coins I've seen are a clipped blank planchet (it's questionable whether a blank planchet is an error anyway), an indent error with a partial collar, and two clipped planchet errors with partial collar errors. I'm lucky enough to own a few of these double errors that I've seen including the last one, the clipped planchet with a partial collar error.

You can see this above, an Australian 1967 20 cent coin with a large clipped planchet and the corresponding weakness in the rim opposite the clipped area. The is a tell tale sign of a true clipped planchet, the so called 'Blakesley Effect'. As a clipped planchet error this is a lovely example, the coin is a nice high grade. However, to top it all off the coin is ALSO a partial collar error! The 'railroad' rim is obvious on the coin edge, with the reeding imparted by the collar only going half way down the edge of the coin. This shows that the coin was only partially engaged with the collar when it was struck.

We've talked a lot about storing coins properly so they dont change their condition over time, you can read a lot of articles about storing your coin collection in the archives. We've talked about various types of holders, we've talked about not using PVC coin pages, and we've talked about how to use the different archival quality coin holders. One thing we haven't talked about is the folders themselves that hold your coins what are they made of? I'd bet you a dollar if you go get your coin albums right now and take a look at them that they are almost certainly PVC! Almost all of the commonly available albums designed for coin collectors that are available here in Australia, primarily those from Renniks and the Numis albums are covered in PVC. Really the only dedicated albums that are not covered in PVC are the push in coin albums like those available from Dansco. But of course those push in albums come with enough problems of their own.

So what's the solution? Well right now there really isn't one. Just look long and hard at your folders and keep an eye on the marketplace, there may be PVC and acid free coin folders available soon.

I posted about this subject a couple of days ago on the Australian Ebay forums and on thinking about it it's well worth posting about here. The topic in question is one of dealers and whether or not dealers should be trusted. This comes about from comments I have made about the recent ANDA Coin and Banknote Show I attended and the 'improved' nature of a large number of the coins that I saw. By improved I generally mean cleaned. Because of these comments someone asked if mistrusted all dealers, and my answer was, trust had nothing to do with it. When I look at a dealers stock I go with my eyes open prepared to buy what I see with my eyes, based on the grades that I assign a coin, not on the basis of what a dealer says. Unless I have a very personal relationship with a dealer this is how I approach all of them and I strongly recommend you do the same. It is your collection, the dealers coins might end up being your coins, and you should buy what you see, what you grade, and what you understand.

Why? Well dealers in Australian, in general, need to carry many, many coins. Perhaps thousands. Not only that they have to carry Royal Australian Mint products, Perth Mint products, and all manner of world coins. Then end result? Dealers generally, just don't have the time grade a coin with the same degree of care and attention that a diligent and educated coin collector would. Some dealers do, but based on my observations of most dealers stock they clearly do not. So what's the lesson of all this? Find a dealer whose grading you can trust, who doesn't clean or 'improve' his coins, one who understands what it is that you collect, and what you look for in a coin. Oh and one with a return policy.

There's one story I can give you that explains why you should trust YOUR eyes and YOUR knowledge to pick YOUR coins. Recently at a coin show I saw a nice Australian 1954 6d in uncirculated to choice uncirculated condition. Dealer wanted $30 for it. Now, if you know something about 1954 6d's you'll know that year they were struck from hardened polished dies and sometimes have a lovely prooflike appearance. Well I dont know if this dealer knew this or not, but on the top of the holder scribbled out was written "Proof $20,000". So at some stage that dealer thought the coin was a proof based on it's appearance and wanted 1000 times it's value for it. Someone could have bought that coin for $20,000 and been stuck with a dud. Now dont think I am targetting dealers here, I know for certain that NGC has slabbed one 1954 6d as a proof that wasn't, so the TPG's can get it wrong too! That's why you need to trust YOUR eyes and YOUR knowledge.

When I attended the recent 2009 Brisbane ANDA Coin and Banknote Show it became clear to me that some coin dealers are going to be in some serious trouble if or when slabbing Australian coins becomes the de rigeur of the Australian coin market. The reason I say this? Well mainly because the 'old' practices of 'improving' the eye appeal of coins by cleaning them will simply become unacceptable by the market. While I was in Brisbane I saw many, many, coins that were labelled as uncirculated, almost uncirculated, or extremely fine that had clearly been 'improved' by someone in the coins life. Very few dealers had clearly labelled coins as cleaned, and the majority that were labelled as cleaned were so obviously cleaned that it would be sheer folly to NOT admin they were cleaned. Some examples of 'improved' coins that I saw in dealers stock in Brisbane included:

• Dozens and dozens of Australian pre decimal silver coins with original reverses and strongly wiped obverses.
• A distinct lack of toned silver coins. A 70 year old worn silver coin SHOULD have some toning or debris accumulation. This is a sign of dipping.
• Copper coins with even toning but lighter toned circular spots on them. When examining the lighter toned spots there was a tiny much brighter spot at the center. This is usually sign of a verdigris spot being removed with some sort of solvent such as olive oil and then using a toothpick.
• Copper coins with odd accumulations of debris around the legends and nowhere else but still graded as uncirculated. These coins just look wrong, and are perhaps a sign of dirty uncirculated copper being treated with an old time solvent like blue ribbon, but not treated for long enough.
• Lots of silver coins that may have been labelled with higher grades but showed cloudy fields, breaks in the lustre, and sometimes still even accumulations of PVC green slime. These coins had clearly been stored directly in PVC album pages or in 2x2's in PVC album pages and had been damaged.

All of this was extremely dis-heartening. Even more dis-heartening was one dealer who was trying to sell a possibly cleaned $1000 coin and when the cleaning was pointed out he went on to say that cleaning to improve eye appeal wouldn't effect the value of the coin. He went on to mention that one of Australia's leading coin dealers and grading expert believed that some cleaning was perfectly acceptable. Now having bought a couple of cleaned coins from the expert in question and having lost more than 50% of their value when selling them I vigorously disagreed with the idea that cleaning wouldn't effect the value!. Needless to say the $1000 coin in question was not purchased.

I suppose what I am getting at here is that if slabbing does become the accepted method of collectors purchasing their coins then some dealers are going to be in some serious trouble. Their stock will be rendered essentially worthless, cleaned 'uncirculated' QE2 florins that they want $30-40 for will be worth $10 or less. 'Improved' gem graded pennies QE2 pennies that they want $200 for will be worth $20. I think you're seeing this sort of phenomenon on Ebay right now. 'Uncirculated' 1960's florins from non reputable dealers are gettting 1/3 to 1/2 the price of PCGS slabbed material. Note that I'm only talking about low dollar material here, I cringe to think of gem graded coins worth thousands that have been tinkered with, it will simply become harder and harder for dealers to shift these coins. And as more and more PCGS and NGC graded coins of the same type enter the market the raw coins will just get harder to sell. Prices for raw coins will need to drop accordingly.

This situation will only become worse as newer younger collectors enter the hobby who are less set in their ways and looking to establish relationships with dealers, slabs are an easier way for a collector to enter the hobby with some certainty. Older dealers used to the old 'tricks' can build a fort and fight against it, but in the long term this going to be futile. Time and ideas move on. I can tell you now that while I am no slabbing evangelist there are certain Australian coin dealers I will not buy unslabbed coins from again. And if I have taken that standpoint then I can only assume that other collectors have done the same. Dealers had better prepare for a change or one day they'll wake up and find that a lot of their stock is worth 50%, or 40%, or even 10% of what it was just a few months before.

This entry is the second part of the 2009 Brisbane ANDA Coin and Banknote Show report started in this entry. We'll cover the quality and types of coins available at the show, talk about some highlights that we saw, and make brief mention of some of the people we talked to.

The feeling generally from interstate dealers was that it's almost not worth the efforts of travel as I believe it was around $1500 for dealers to have a table at the show. With airline weight restrictions they aren't able to travel with the amount of stock that they'd like to bring. It was quite a common excuse that "no we didn't bring what you are asking about due to the airline weight restrictions". Show attendees will have felt the effect of this with many dealers not showing their full range of available material. We certainly asked for several things from different dealers and were told that what we'd wanted had not been brought along. Our other observations of the material present was that there was an absolute overload of low and mid grade material available for viewing and very little high grade Australian pre-decimal coins on show. Most dealers seemed to have limited themselves to just one or two cases of higher grade coins and bulked this out with folders full of, well to put it simply, junk.

It's worth talking about slabbed coins quickly because we (and a lot of other people) think that this is where the Australian coin market is heading. Despite this belief we didn't see any indication of it in Brisbane, only two dealers had slabbed coins from recognised grading companies that we noticed. Sterling and Currency had a limited number of slabbed coins and International Numismatics brought along several dozen slabbed coins. That being said the recognised Australian 'slabbed' dealers such as Pacific Rim Coins, Drake Sterling and Walter Eigner did not attend the show so perhaps the lack of slabbed material was not a true indication of the market.

There was some great stuff at the show and it's worth writing about some of it because you just dont see some of it very often at all. A highlight we felt, was Canberra Numisco selling a "Fastbuck Wallet" from 1966 for $1490. With just 70 Fastbuck Wallets issued in 1966 they are a true decimal rarity and this was the first time either of us had actually seen one in the flesh. Other dealers had showpieces well worth viewing but sadly not within the average collectors budget. Sterling and Currency were offering a 1966 pattern 50c, International Numimatics caught the eye with a complete penny collection and a sixpence collection in PCGS slabs for over 100k for each collection. A selection of Foy Bags available also with approx 6 on offer that we saw. Foy Bags come in two varieties and you dont see the more common Melbourne bag too often at all, and the Perth Bag is almost never seen. Unusually there were two Perth bags available at the show! Sadly one had been ripped in half and taped together but, still, it's a genuine Perth bag. Klaus Ford Numismatics had about the best bag either of us had seen, perhaps in EF condition with the paper still very white. Sadly the reverse had been written on by the original owner of the 1934-35 Centenary Florin it once contained. The note said 'This is valuable. Do not clean. If you must use soap and water'. A wise warning indeed! Personally we think this added to the charm of the bag but little did the owner know that 70 years later the paper bag could be worth more than the coin it contained! Those error collectors would have been disappointed with not much available at the show. Those rarities available had truly rare price tags to match!

As well as coins and banknotes to buy there were upcoming auction lots to view. This is handy for interstate buyers for forthcoming auctions. the last thing you want to do at auction is to buy anything sight unseen. International Auction Galleries, Downies, and Roxbury's were all there promoting their auction services and showing auction lots.

Ian McConnelly was manning the Australian Coin and Banknote magazine stand. If you haven't met Ian he is the varieties writer in the magazine and it's always a pleasure to chat with him about varieties, events and general numismatic interests. We spoke to him for an hour about many different things and he sent us on our way with some 1988 Brisbane Expo rolled pennies and Expo Dollar Notes, nice freebies on his behalf that he was handing out as gifts. We also caught up with well respected decimal researcher Wayne Roberts. Those who dont know Wayne should realise that a lot of the improvements in accuracy in the decimal section of the McDonalds Australian Coins and Banknote Catalogue are due to Wayne's hard work in researching from the mint's annual reports and variety hunting. Some other dealers were present but without tables some just for a catchup with mates, stock hunting and others to attend the ANDA AGM for presidential elections and an ANDA dinner.

Personally we had a fun time at the coin show. It's always a blast to look through hundreds of coins and 'geek' out talking to fellow collectors and getting to salivate over coins that you'll never be able to afford. If we look hard at ourselves, though, we can only be slightly disappointed with the quality of coins on show. Neither of us left the show with a single high grade Australian pre-decimal coin for our own collections. This was for a few reasons, firstly there were a LOT of cleaned or manipulated coins that dealers wanted top dollar for. Secondly, we saw a number of 'high' grade coins in PVC album pages that were damaged as well as coins that had clearly just come out of PVC album pages that were showing evidence of PVC damage. The last reason was just lack of material, not many dealers had high grade pre-decimal coins. That being said we did purchase some lovely 1950 and 1960 rainbow copper, a few high grade non Australian coins, and picked up several Australian Penny and Half Penny varieties for just a dollar or two that dealers hadn't identified correctly and placed in their normal stock folders. ANDA Coin shows are always worth attending, if one comes to your city please go along, it's a great way of getting into the coin collecting hobby. It's also a good way of getting a coin collection valued by a range of dealers and ensuring you get a fair price for it.

The pair of us are just travelling back home (yes, typing and flying!) after having attended the ANDA Coin and Banknote Show in Brisbane (which we talked about here) on May 22 to 24 2009. The ANDA shows happen several times each year in various major cities around Australia and act as a major drawcard to collectors and coin dealers alike. This years show in Brisbane was held a short distance from the CBD of Brisbane in a building in the RNA Showgrounds. Getting from the CBD to the show was a 10 minute bus trip, which sounds simple enough other than the fact that the showgrounds are not sign-posted at all and we missed our stop on the first day. Still we had a lovely tour of the north western suburbs of Brisbane and met some friendly bus drivers who took us where we needed to go!

We (finally) arrived at the show just before the midday opening on Friday, there was a queue of perhaps 100 people waiting to get in. A representative of VP Coins (from Mount Gravatt in Brisbane) was handing out bags containing a discount voucher and promotional material for coin clubs to the people waiting in line, a smart move on their behalf. We were pleasantly surprised when we got in by the number of dealers that were present, with perhaps 20-25 individual sellers having tables. There were coin dealers, banknote dealers, stamp dealers, Renniks (coin collecting supplies), and one dealer who had made the trip over from New Zealand. There were a couple of coin and stamp club displays with show attendees voting on the best displays presented by the respective club members. We dont collect stamps so we didn't end up looking at the stamp club displays, shame on us. The coin club displays were very interesting, the highlights of the displays for us were a display showing the evolution of the dollar in Australian currency and another showing various different types of trade dollars which we've written about previously.

As usual ANDA had some promotional activities organised, these included lucky door prizes of $50 drawn each hour, the ANDA 'overprint' 2009 Australian mint set, and a Perth Mint 2009 Kookaburra coin. ANDA had to go the 'extra yard' at this show because of the non-attendance of the Royal Australian Mint at the show. The portable press that the RAM drags along with them to a lot of shows to produce the 'mint mark' show dollars is a huge drawcard and not having it at the show can only have had a bad effect on the attendance. A quick note on the 'overprint' mint set, each entrant was only allowed to buy two of these sets that were prepared by the Royal Australian Mint. The 'overprint' was just a sticker on the slipcover, which was disappointing to say the least. We learned later in the show that the ANDA organisers were also not happy with the RAM doing this instead of overprinting the mint set covers properly. Amenities at the show were fine, with the cafeteria open most of the time the show was running, the food served up was fine just as long as you liked your fare deep fried. Prices were reasonable too, something we found with most of the food we bought in Brisbane.

Enough of non coin related matters, let's get onto the coins. Our plan for day one of the show was to look through selected dealers stock as closely as possible, and on the second day to have a more casual browse around and catch up with various people at the show who we knew or wanted to meet. We lasted nearly 5 hours at the show on day 1 sitting down looking through folders and books full of coins and pestering dealers to take their 'show piece' coins out of glass cabinets so we could examine them more closely. There were some dealers who made this process very easy and others who handed out coins one at a time from the cases. It makes it very difficult to view one coin at a time from a cabinet, it was just so much easier when dealers had books or trays they could remove easily for our perusal. Our compliments should go to dealers Steele Waterman, Mostly Small Change, International Numismatics, VP Coins, and a couple of others who we've forgotten for making their stock easy to view and for being both friendly and polite to show attendees. We understand security can be an issue but with ANDA hired security guards roaming the aisles and doorways you'd be stupid to try anything dodgy. There was a sign upon entry that stated that ANDA had the right to refuse anyone entry or eject anyone at their discretion.

In part 2 of this coin show report we'll cover the quality and types of material available at the show and talk about some of the people we spoke to while we where there.

About 5 times per year collectors pilgrimage to ANDA coin shows in various capital cities right across the country. These coin shows allow dealers, collectors and friends to come together for all things numismatic and sometimes philatelic. It is our chance to get together with friends we talk to on mediums such as the internet and phone but rarely get to see in person.

This weekend the ANDA show will be held in Brisbane on Friday to Sunday. Coin shows often give rise to special releases that are only available at the shows. Sometimes these are made by dealers (such as the Brisbane Coin Fair Overprints) or the Perth or Royal Australian Mints with limited edition coin releases. The Perth Mint usually has a special release for each show and the Royal Australian Mint sometimes brings its' portable press to the shows. This allows you to mint your own dollar which is typically just a special mark struck on the coin at the show.

The RAM isn't attending this show. It's unclear if the RAM will attend any shows this year which is disapppointing. Given that the RAM isn't attending this show and the special releases from the Perth Mint are not that popular it's up to the show organisers to release something special to draw people to the show. These items usually are unavailable elsewhere.

ANDA is advertising a 2009 Year of Astronomy mint set that will be available exclusively at the Brisbane Show this weekend. The only difference between this and the standard mint set is the overprinted folder featuring the ANDA logo. Each ticket holder is only allowed to purchase two of these sets and the release is limited to just 1500 units.

The last time we saw this was in 2006 when the Canberra ANDA show featured a similar mint set overprint with the ANDA logo. They released 1500 of these folders and as I recall there should have been more at the rest of the ANDA shows around the country for the year but there was a problem and there were no future issues of these overprinted sets.

Overseas the RAM attends the World Money Fair each year and often produces sets with a logo on the packaging. These sets are always exactly as regular sets that are issued they just feature a logo or sticker on the packaging. Collecting these types of releases has a pet name, fellow coin collectors affectionately term this "packyboxitis".

The Australian 5 cent coin features an Echidna on the reverse designed by Stuart Devlin. The obverse features Queen Elizabeth II bearing the differing portrait designs depending on which year it was struck. In 1966 when it was first issued it was struck at 2 different mint's. It was struck at the Canberra Mint and also the London Mint. The denoting feature of the London minted coin is the long spine and a short spine on the Canberra minted coin. Some 1981 5 cents were struck in Ottawa Canada. Australia hasn't minted any commemorative 5c pieces, they all feature the echidna.

The 5c is comprised of 75% copper and 25% nickel weighing 2.83grams. This small cupro-nickel coin is 19.41millimetres in diameter and has its entire edge reeded.

If you're checking your change for obscure years look out for a 1972 issue. Whilst most other uncirculated examples fetch from between $2 and $8 this particular year with a mintage of 8 256 000 has a cv of $35. This is the lowest mintage year for the 5 cent piece by a long shot.

If you happen across a 1985 or 1986 5 cent in your change it has certainly been "spent" out of a mint set and will fetch a premium.

Circulation die varieties have been found showing the designers initials SD being small and large(r) font. Also a small and large head obverse with the IRB designers initials joined or spaced apart slightly.

Sterling silver examples of the 5c echidna exist in the 1991 masterpieces in silver set and the fine silver year sets. There are also some gold versions in the gold year sets. These coins are the same size but because of their differing composition they are different weights.

If you're collecting the special mint mark, privy mark and counter stamp dollars released by the Royal Australian Mint or special releases from shows you'll see that they're issued in a folder as shown below. Each year is a different folder and during the year there are different marks on the coins denoting their origins.

I thought I might share my method of removing the dollars from these folders with you. Before I learned this trick I recall it was a tremendous effort to try and remove the coin without damaging the folder or the coin. This method removes the coin quickly and safely so you can store your coin in a staple 2x2 away from the elements. The folders that the uncirculated dollars come in are not sealed from the elements therefore are prone to toning or environmental damage.

Tools for this little trick are simply 2 toothpicks. Slide each toothpick one at a time gently in the folder opening up each side of the coin. You can use the edge reeding on the coin to grip the toothpick and ease the toothpick out, this will roll the coin gently out of the holder. Then using your gloves you can place your coin into the 2x2 holder and staple it up. Very simply and without fuss it is easily done!

Oh how sad I was today when I sat down to go through some coins I had inherited. I have seen the damage done to coins by bad storage methods and pvc so every coin I get that is anywhere close to pvc gets removed and housed up in a 2x2 and into polypropylene album pages.

The John West Commemorative Cover is a lovely little green vinyl (pvc) folder

"To commemorate the First Issue Australian One Dollar Coin and the last issue Australian One Dollar Note in 1984 John West are proud to present you with this memorable cover to be treasured as a family heirloom and be passed on to your children and grandchildren as part of history in the making."

Inside the cover on the topside is an uncirculated 1 dollar note slid into a pvc flap, on the bottom side is an uncirculated $1 coin pressed into cardboard with the above inscription. I pulled out this card and the dollar coin is being held in there by sticky tape! An old method of coin storage for amateur collectors used to be putting threepences or sixpences along strings of sticky tape. I have seen irreversible damage done to coins stored this way. The sticky tape leaves an adhesive residue on the coin ruining it forever. This coin below is irreparably ruined.

So obviously the sticky tape was used to stabilise the coin so it didn't fall from the cover. This will never be an heirloom to pass on to your kids in this condition. If every cover was manufactured like this then every last dollar coin in these folders is ruined for good. Ask yourself this -Are you collecting the coin or the packaging?

There are 3 different dies that strike a coin blank to make a coin. The obverse (heads) side, the reverse (tails) side and the collar die. The reverse die usually on the bottom is recessed below the collar. The collar die may seem insignificant but it is extremely important part of getting the strike correct and centered on the coin. The collar die holds the planchet so the two other dies can strike and effect the design on the coin precisely. The collar die also adds edge milling or reeding to some coins.

Occasionally during striking the blank doesn't fall correctly into place. If there is a malfunction of the press particularly with the collar die or how the coin is held in place by the collar then you can end up with a whole range of errors or effects.

Partial Straight Collar
A partial straight collar occurs when the coin planchet falls into the chamber to be struck but is squarely disengaged from the collar die. The coin blank isn't sitting correctly in the chamber so when it is struck the result is a semi struck edge but the same all the way around the coin edge.

Partial Tilted Collar
A partial tilted collar occurs the same as the partial straight collar but the coin is only partially out of the collar. This results in a line around the outside edge of the coin but this is on an angle possibly higher on one side than the other. This can often result in a slightly higher edge on one side of the coin which may also give the impression or a double or extended rim on the coin. This is quite often confused with a mule coin. You can refresh your memory on what a real mule coin is in our post about the $1/10c mule. For a coin with milling on it's edge it is easy to see the effect of the collar only being partially engaged. A coin with a plain edge is slightly different. It may show signs of a "railroad" rim which resembles an edge like railroad track.

Out of Collar
Affectionately termed the "pancake" this coin resembles a coin that looks as if it has been flattened in a press. If this was the case then the designs would be flattened also. You can imagine the coin being fed into the chamber but that crucial third collar die not engaging, the resulting strike pressure would force the metal outwards and if not contained by the collar would result in an out of collar strike. This coin would have a wider diameter than a standard coin.

In my previous entry about Australian proclamation coins I mentioned the Silver Guilder (or Gulden) of the Netherlands which was valued at 2s in the proclamation. A large 30millimetre coin minted from about 10.5grams of 0.911 fine silver you can see an example of the 1794 proclamation guilder above. Silver guilders were minted from the late 17th century to the early 19th century in most of the provinces of what would be come the united nation of the Netherlands in 1815. Interestingly one year after the coin above was minted the provinces were united (under French influence) as the Batavian Republic. It was not until 1815 that the rightful heir to the Dutch throne returned from exile (when the Napolean was deposed) to found the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The obverse depicts the robed godess Athena (the godess of Wisdom and the protector of Athens) with her left arm resting on a large book atop a pillar. In her left hand she holds an upturned spear. The date is shown in the exergue. The legend reads "HAC NITIMVR HANC TVEMVR". This loosely translates to "We Protect (or Defend) the one and are supported (or protected) by the other". In this case the one is the helmet and spear of Athena and the other is the book on the pedestal, which is presumed to be the Christian Bible.

The reverse depicts a shield with a crown, in the middle of the shield is a lion holding 7 arrows. The 7 arrows represent the 7 provinces of the Netherlands. The denomination of the coin is shown either side of the shield. The legend reads "MO:ARG:ORD:FED:BELG:HOLL". The legend varies a little between coins from different provinces, for example, the HOLL on this coin signifies it was minted in the province of Holland. The rest of the legend can be translated as "Silver Coin of the United Netherlands of Holland".

The Netherlands Silver Guilders are an interesting coin buy because there's a wider range of varieties available to the collector. I've purchased 4 of them and they've all varied in condition widely. The first couple showed good detail but had clearly been either dipped or polished and were not of much interest to me. The second couple were much more original showing darker toning and still having good detail. The coin shown above it quite dark and shows wear only on the highest points and considerable strike weakness through the lion on the reverse. In spite of this the above coin is the ideal coin for the collector, it shows original surfaces, lovely toning, and is an appealing example of the type.

Question:

Hi, I have a 2002 $1 outback australian coin that is similar to your 2000 mule $1 dollar coin. Are these common? Sorry if the following pictures are not visbile enough. If they aren't visible i will be happy to send some more. Regards

Answer:

Hi, Thankyou for your questions and for reading our blog.

Isn't it difficult to photograph coins! I can sort of get the idea of what you have but it's not always certain when you don't have clear pictures. I think what you have is a very slight mistrike dollar giving the effect of a partial extra rim around some of the coin. When the coin was struck it was not perfectly centered thus allowing for a bit of give in the strike creating the slight extra rim. Sometimes when the collar die is not fully engaged or the planchet slips out of the collar die you can get an "out of collar" coin which can give an extra rim on the coin. This will be evident showing a misalignment or problem with the rim on the coin. A "railroad" rim sometimes is seen. If yours is showing a normal rim and is slightly off center then it's not worth anything, just the $1 face value. If the rim isn't showing the normal reeding all the way round then it may be a genuine error and be worth a little more.

The 2000 dollar mule coin is a totally different coin. It has been minted with the wrong obverse (heads) die- that of the 10 cent piece, which is only slightly smaller. A dollar coin is 25 millimetres and the 10 cent 23.6 millimetres, so 1.4 millimetres smaller. With the smaller obverse die a perfectly centered mule would have a 0.7mm extra rim around the entire rim of the coin. We're talking very little so it's very easy to misidentify these if you don't know what you are looking for. The other thing is that your coin is an outback dollar and these mules are only known to exist for one production run of the mob of roos dollars in the year 2000.

I hope I've helped you with your questions,

Happy collecting,

The australian-threepence.com team

Question:

I am writing to enquire about a few coins I have recently found, as I know nothing about coin collecting it would be handy to have some advice. 50 cent coin only stamped on one side. The coat of arms side is as normal, turn it over and its blank, but by the marking on the coin it is clear it has not been scratched or defaced.

2 x 1999 $2 coins with what google has told me is a "reverse rim cud". One just above the ETH II and the other just above the USTRAL.

2 x 2000 $2 coins with what appears to be an off centre stamping making it appear to have a double ring on one side and very little edge on the other

Variety of coins with commemorative prints including; $1, 50c and 20c World War II We Remember

Millenium 50c coin (without incused flag)
1981 Charles and Diana's Wedding 50c
1998 Discovery of Bass Straight 50c
1970 Captain Cook 50c
2005 Commonwealth Games 50c
2002 Windmill 50c
2001 Centenary of Federation 50c (Australia, ACT, Norfolk Island coins)
2001 International Year of Volunteers $1 x 2
2003 Australia's Volunteers $1
2001 Centenary of Federation $1
2008 Centenary of Scouting $1

Basically what I would like to know is, are any of these worthwhile selling for keen collectors collections, are any rare, and what is the best avenue for selling any that are of some worth? A couple of them have a bit of tarnish and discolouration, is there anything in particular that is used for cleaning coins or can I just use my jewellery cleaner?

Thankyou so much for your assistance

Answer:

Thanks for your questions and thanks for reading our blog. The 50c coin stamped on one side only sparks interest for me. You'll have to weigh it exactly (maybe visit a jeweller), it should weigh 15.55grams. If it's been machined down on the blank side or been interfered with then it will weigh less and not be worth more than 50 cents. It may just be that the blank side is a weak strike, this will possibly make it worth a little more. If has genuinely not been struck then it's called a uniface coin and if proved to be genuine then it may be worth hundreds of dollars. This is worth investigating more, maybe take it to a coin shop or local dealer and get their opinion. If it is genuine and you wish to sell it then your local coin dealer may offer to buy it or you could consign it to auction. Let me know if you want further info on this after you weigh it if it looks to be genuine, I can help you further. The rim cuds might make a few dollars more than face value on eBay, they are genuine extra blobs of metal when the coin has been struck but are quite common. The off-centre 2 dollar doesn't sound to be anything too special. There is often a little movement when the coin is struck allowing for some slight off centre. When you can accurately say that a coin has been struck off centre with more than about 2mm then it becomes more valuable. The $2 is the rarer of all the denominations to have larger off centre strikes but are quite commonly found with slight double rimming. The other comemmoratives you list aren't really worth any more than their face value although maybe interesting to keep if in good condition. Please don't clean your coins, this is best left to the professionals only in exceptional circumstances. Just rubbing a coin with a cloth can leave tiny hairlines that can be seen under magnification that could render the coin worthless. If they are dirty you might use a small amount of dish washing liquid and hot water to get the dirt off and lay them on paper towel to air dry without any rubbing as I mentioned above.. I hope I've helped you with your questions, Happy collecting, The Australian-threepence.com Team

Follow Up:

It turned out that the 50 cent had concentric rings on the blank side, so it was almost certainly put onto a lathe or milling machine and skimmed off.

I am not sure what untold box of horrors I'm opening us up for here, but I think it might be interesting to allow you, the reader, to ask us, the writers, any questions you might have. Of course the questions need to be coin related, and ideally Australian Coin related. Any error coin related questions you might have would be welcome, whether they deal with Australian coins or not.

Of course we are not coin dealers, nor are we particularly expert so our answers should be taken with a large grain of salt. We'd be very hesitant to give a grade for any on the basis of photographs, and if we do happen to give a grade for a coin it is not an assured grade and nor will we guarantee it. We can give you an opinion though. So there it is, if you have a question, email us your enquiry. Any questions we get and answer will be posted up here on the blog for all to see. Of course you'll remain completely anonymous, but it may be educational for readers to see the sorts of questions that get asked.

We've had a few questions via email already, and we'll post these up here in the next little while.

When researching my previous post I got to thinking about defaced currency and this coloured printing technique and I had this crazy idea. I decided to sacrifice one of my pad-printed coloured ocean series dollars for the good of the coin collecting community.

What does a coin look like under this colour? Here is my test coin, a coloured pad-printed bottlenose dolphin Australian one dollar.

To remove the painted surface I first tested to see if Acetone was enough to remove it. After soaking for a few hours the paint was easily peeled away.

The above coin is the result. Who would have known that the dolphins were struck onto the coin and just not included in the paint job! It's still a perfectly good dollar as far as I can tell even though it's defaced. Still legal currency worth a whole dollar down from it's $14.95 issue price. Still this was an interesting experiment. I can only guess that over time this pad-printing might not stand the test of time and we can expect to see more dollars in this condition.

You might be interested to see when stepping into your dealer or looking in the cabinet at Australia Post shops that some Australian coins are minted with colour!

It started with the odd issue in proof sets such as the 2000 Millennium set 50 cent coin, the 2001 Federation set with the one dollar and the 50 cent, the 2002 dollar and 2003 dollar. Also some $5 Olympic and Commonwealth Games issues. In the past 2 years the Royal Australian Mint has adopted a pad-printing technique to add detailed coloured designs to NCLT collector dollars that are quite spectacular.

Starting in 2006, the one dollar Ocean series featured:

• Clownfish
  
• Bottlenose Dolphin
  
• Biscuit Starfish
  
• Longfin Bannerfish
  
• White Shark
  
• Big Belly Seahorse

In 2008 it continued with the one dollar Land series featuring:

• Koala
  
• Wombat
  
• Echidna
  
• Rock Wallaby

New Issues include:

• Bilby
  
• Frilled-Necked Lizard

With these coloured issues becoming more frequent it's worth discussing possible fraudulent activities associated with these coins so you aren't sucked into buying worthless coins. It's possible to subject these coins to acid or solvents and remove the colour on the coin. This will make the coin appear entirely different to it's original state. It has then been known to be passed off as an error coin with collectors paying hundreds of dollars for mistake coins passing the mint's stringent quality control process. These are not error coins but merely defaced coins and worth steering clear of.

In the year 2000 the Royal Australian mint released a commemorative 50 cent coin into circulation celebrating the the dawn of the new millennium. This coin had the standard Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse, and the reverse had a new design by Vladimir Gottwald. Seen above the reverse comprises a stylized Australian flag with the large legend "Millennium Year" and "50 Cents". For those who don't know, the Australian flag consists of the Union Jack in the top left, the 7 pointed federation star below, and the constellation 'The Southern Cross' to the right. With a mintage of nearly 17 million the Millennium 50 cent is hardly a scarce coin.

In a previous entry on the value of 50 cent coins I made mention of a variety of the Millennium 50 cent called the 'incuse millennium'. This is a scarce die variety of the coin, with only around 200,000 manufactured. It is well worth looking out for in your change as they can still be found, and they are worth $20-30 in average circulated condition. Identifying the Incuse Flag Millennium is fairly simple, I've highlighted the areas of interest in the image above. Following is a list of identifiers to look out for:

• The crosses of the Union Jack are incuse on the Incuse Millennium rather than in relief (raised) in the standard Millennium 50 cent.
• The Federation Star (under the Union Jack) is slightly larger and has a smooth field on the Incuse Millennium. The standard Millennium 50 cent has a rougher field on the Federation Star and the star is slightly smaller.

It's an easy variety to spot, and if you see a Millennium 50 cent in your change it's worth taking a closer look at it, you could be about to spend a coin worth $20!

The incuse variety was originally intended for coins used in Mint Sets and the Royal Australian Mint manufactured just one die with the flag variation. That decision was later overturned and the die used for one production run of coins for circulation -approximately 200,000 coins.

From an error collectors point of view it's worth discussing fraudulent use of this coin in it's proof state. The proof version of the millennium 50 cent only found in 2000 proof sets feature a coloured Australian Flag. Occasionally these have been removed from sets and exposed to acid or some sort of solvent to remove the colouring from the surface. This will leave a blank open field where the Australian Flag should be and remove the polished surfaces of the proof coin making it look like a circulation issue and not a proof. Attempts can then be made to pass off these coins as error coins with buyers potentially paying hundreds of dollars for these man-made fakes. Beware!