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.
Posted by harrisk at May 2, 2009 10:10 AM
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