The 1966 2c coin was the highest mintage 1966 coin and was minted at the Melbourne branch of the Royal Mint (66,575,000 coins), the Perth branch of the Royal Mint (217,735,000 coins) and the RAM in Canberra (66,575,000 coins) . Distinguishing the mint of manufacture of this coin is done by looking at the front feet of the frill necked lizard. If the right most claw of the front right foot is blunted then the coin was minted in Perth. If the second claw from the right on the left foot is blunted then the coin was minted in Melbourne. If there are no blunted claws then the coin was minted in Canberra. The image above shows the Canberra minted coin at the top with an indicator of which claw is blunted for the Melbourne minted coin. The bottom image is of a Perth minted 2c.

You can find out about the other 1966 decimal coin mint marks by looking at our 1966 Australian decimal coin mint mark article.

Thanks to Stuart Andersen Coins for the supply of some of the coins used in this article.

The 1966 1c coin was the second highest mintage 1966 coin and was minted at the Melbourne branch of the Royal Mint (238,990,00 coins), the Perth branch of the Royal Mint (26,620,000 coins) and the RAM in Canberra (146,140,000 coins) . Distinguishing the mint that manufactured this coin is done by looking at the left-most whiskers of the possum. If the left most whisker is blunted then the coin was minted in Melbourne, if the second from the left most whisker is blunted then the coin was minted in Perth. If neither are blunted then the coin was minted in Canberra. The images above show the Canberra minted coin at the top and a Melbourne minted coin below. The image at the bottom of this article shows a Perth minted 1c coin.

You can find out about the other 1966 decimal coin mint marks by looking at our 1966 Australian decimal coin mint mark article.

Thanks to Stuart Andersen Coins for the supply of some of the coins used in this article.

The 1966 20c coin was minted at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra (28,196,000 coins) and the London branch of the Royal Mint (30,000,000 coins). I find this coin a little tougher to pick between the two mints. The water swirl that ends in a point next to the platypus' head on the reverse is supposed to have no gap (or a very small gap) between the swirl and the head on the London coin, and show a distinct gap on the Canberra minted coin. However if the strike is slightly weaker on the London minted coins then there can be a small gap present and the coin must be examined closely to be sure of the mint of origin.

You can find out about the other 1966 decimal coin mint marks by looking at our 1966 Australian decimal coin mint mark article.

The 1966 10c coin was minted at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra (10,940,000 coins) and the London branch of the Royal Mint (30,000,000 coins). Distinguishing the two coins isn't too hard and can be seen easily above. Look on the reverse of the coins for the three lyre bird feathers toward the top of the coin. The die marker is on the centre feather, on the Canberra coin the last spur of the feather has been removed. You can see this clearly on the image above, the spur is circled on the London minted coin, and the same spot (with the missing spur) circled on the Canberra minted coin.

You can find out about the other 1966 decimal coin mint marks by looking at our 1966 Australian decimal coin mint mark article.

The 1966 5c coin was minted at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra (45,384,000 coins) and the London branch of the Royal Mint (30,000,000 coins). Distinguishing the two coins isn't too hard and can be seen easily above. Look for the spines on the echidna's front right shoulder, the spine circled in red above is long on the London minted coins and only about half the length on the Canberra minted coins.

You can find out about the other 1966 decimal coin mint marks by looking at our 1966 Australian decimal coin mint mark article.

Due to the large number of coins required for the February 14 1966 changeover to decimal coinage in Australia several mints both here and abroad were used to produce the 1966 cupro nickel and bronze coinage. Coins were struck at the London, Perth, and Melbourne branches of the Royal Mint and at the new Royal Australian Mint in Canberra. There were no mintmarks on any of the coins to allow easy determination of which mint a coin was produced at. According to the Controller of the Mint at the time, Jim Henderson:

...it was intended that all Australian coins would be struck in the Royal Australian Mint after the initial changeover to decimals had been satisfied, it was not considered necessary to distinguish the coins by a specific mark identifying the mint of origin. There are, therefore, no mintmarks, as such, on the decimal coins.

However, it was possible (by the use of die markers) to distinguish what mints coins were minted at. These marks were disclosed by the Controller of the Mint in two letters to The Australian Coin Review in April 1967 (for the bronze 1c and 2c coins) and August 1971 (for the Cupro Nickel 5c, 10c, and 20c coins). All of the 80% silver round 50c coins were minted at the RAM in Canberra. This blog article will (eventually) be a single source of information online to allow you to identify the 1966 decimal coins by their mint of origin.

Identifying 1966 Decimal Coins by Mint of Origin

• 1966 1c Coin Mint Marks
• 1966 2c Coin Mint Marks
• 1966 5c Coin Mint Marks
• 1966 10c Coin Mint Marks
• 1966 20c Coin Mint Marks
• 1966 50c Coin - all minted in Canberra

Addendum:

Australian 1966 20c Obverse Die Differences

Reference: "How to Distinguish All 1966 Decimal Mintings", pp1-4, The Australian Coin Review, August 1971 Vol 8, No 2

On June 21st 1934 it was announced in the "Argus", the Melbourne daily newspaper of the time, that arrangements had been made between Centenary officials, representatives of the British Treasury and the Commonwealth Government for a special comemmorative florin to be struck for the occasion. This occasion was the centenary of first two permanent settlements in Victoria, Portland Bay in 1834 and Melbourne in 1835.

A limited number of coins were struck for the Centenary Council, to be sold and distributed by them at a shilling above face value with the profits going to the Council. The costs for the production of this coin were borne by the Centenary Council itself which included the provision of a special die which cost approximately 100 pounds (the average wage in 1934 was just 4 pounds so this was no small expense).

As of 15 February 1935, of the 75,000 coins that had been minted only 11,000 had been sold which became a burden on the Centenary Council. The Centenary Council were told soon after that the remaining unsold coins would be melted down in 6 weeks time if they had not been sold.

With poor sales due to the great depression, a local department store put in a request for 30,000 coins. This was "Foy and Gibson", with the coins to be given out in customers' change along with a comemmorative paper bag to store their special coin. These days both types of "Foy" bag, the Melbourne and Perth command high premiums (often more than the value of a Centenary florin) even without a coin inside.

21,000 coins were eventually melted down leaving a mintage of the 1934-5 Centenary Florin at 54,000 coins.

That's the history of the coin in a nutshell but what about the design on the coin? The obverse was the effigy of George V by Percy Metcalfe which was used on New Zealand and Canadian coins but only on the Centennial Florin in Australia. This design was also used in other Commonwealth countries at the time.

The reverse featured a horse and rider by George Kruger Gray, known also for his design on the ramshead shilling, coat of arms florin and the crown. The design signified the centenary of settlement in Victoria. The horse represented the major mode of transportation throughout the previous 100 years (1834-1935) and show it was a major contributor to exploration, settlement, cultivation and industry in Victoria. The horses front foot is raised indicating a limitless future to the growth and prosperity of Victoria. The nude rider, a young Victorian gentleman grown to manhood indicating a strong future for the state. The torch he bears symbolises progress and enlightenment.

This Australian centenary florin is 28.5mm in diameter and weighs 11.31grams. It is manufactured from 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. These key date commemorative coins have a high catalogue value and beware of a lot of counterfeit types out there.

A true child of generation X, gadgets and electronic doodads have been a part of my life for pretty much as long as I can remember. I had a Commodore 64 as a child, wiled away hours on an Atari 2600, thought that hand held Donkey Kong was the best thing since sliced bread, and my very first PC was an XT IBM Compatible. As I've gotten older my lust for gadgets hasn't diminished much but I've found that newer gadgets, like fast food, are temporarily satisfying but leave me wondering why I bothered spending the money and just wanting more. Gadgets have come and gone fairly quickly in the last few years without me getting too excited about them (notable exceptions are iPod's, DVD recorders, the original Palm Pilot). I think now I've found another gadget that may be a keeper, the Dino-Lite USB digital microscope. You can see an image of this great new gadget below, the microscope itself and below that the 'scope mounted in it's adjustable stand.

Installing the microscope was simple, a CD came with it that I put into my PC and it went ahead and installed the microscope drivers and some software called "DinoCapture". At some point during the installation process it asked me if I wanted to use DinoCapture to capture images from my microscope or use another application. I chose the default option. Once the software had installed I plugged the microscope into the USB port of my PC and a series of white LED lights lit up around the lens of the device and the DinoCapture software automatically started on my PC. The actual microscope has an adjustable magnification ring around the barrel which you can turn with your thumb, and a small button labelled "micro touch" which you can press to capture images automatically to your PC. The multiple LED lights on the Dino-Lite provide more than enough illumination to take images but if you like you can turn them off using the DinoCapture software and use your own lights (but your white balance will be off). DinoCapture can also capture images directly, record movies, and interestingly do time lapse capture of images. Getting images in focus and centred properly is a doddle using the live image feedback that DinoCapture provides on your computer monitor.

DinoCapture stores captured images in a folder of your choosing on your PC in Windows bitmap format, which means that despite the size of the image files being large that no information is lost through image compression. You can then edit and convert the captured images in the image editing program of your choice. Honestly it couldn't be much easier. Below you can see three images of the same coin taken with the Dino-Lite on different zoom levels.

At the widest zoom the Dino-Lite is almost capable of capturing images of entire coins, but given the low resolution (just 1.2MP) you'd probably still be better off using your camera for most coins. However for very small coins you may find you get more usable resolution with the Dino-Lite. As zoom increases though, the Dino-Lite really shines, with focusing the camera just so easy that true micrographs of coins being possible. The built in lighting is excellent and the colour balance seems to be true and correct. On the image above I've tried to focus in on the N of "IN" to show you the incredible detail the Dino-Lite makes possible. The model tested here has adjustable magnification from 20x to 200x.

Even with all of the good points the Dino-Lite isn't all beer and skittles. The hardware seems to be fine, it is well made and appears to work beautifully. However, the software side of things needs a little bit of work. When installing the DinoCapture software doesn't install a Windows shortcut to start the program, I guess this is because it is designed to start up whenever you plug the Dino-Lite in. Trouble is that it doesn't start up reliably whenever you plug in the microscope. Oops. So you need to go hunting around on the hard disk of your PC to find where the program installed itself so you can start it up manually. The program also seems to have problems with computers with multiple monitors (like mine). Dragging DinoCapture between monitors just doesn't work and requires the program to be re-started so you can see your live images again. A similar thing happens when you put the program in full screen mode and try to switch to another program. Despite these minor problems DinoCapture is quite useable.

So, there you have it, the Dino-Lite USB digital microscope. It was a snap to use, captures great images and I can see how useful it is going to be for our on-going coin research and articles. Highly recommended. One tip, if you're planning on getting one get the models with the 1.3MP resolution, it'd be a shame to skimp! Here's an image of the '4' of a 1934/3 overdate threepence to leave you with.

A PNC is (short for Postal Numismatic Cover) is usually a First Day Cover issued by a nation's postal service (for example Australia Post in Australia) with a coin inserted.

There are many private issue PNC's which don't hold any particular significance and are products developed by eBay sellers but there are a select few private PNC's that hold a place in Australian history.

One such of these is the Yarralumla PNC. This was originally named NU-27 by it's creating company, Nuphll Associates Ltd of Christchurch New Zealand. This PNC was the 27th cover produced by the company. It is more commonly known as " The Yarra or Yarralumla" because of the postmark it carried. Nuphil Associates Ltd were a team of two partners Varian Wilson and Ray Dobson.

When Australia turned to decimal coins in 1966 the 50c was round and contained 80% silver. Soon after it's release the silver value of the new 50c outweighed it's face value so the governing bodies changed their strategy. They would change the new Australian 50c from round to dodecagonal shape and it would be made of cupro-nickel the same as the 20c, 10c and 5c. This was announced in December 1968 by the Federal Treasurer William McMahon. It was hoped the change of shape would help remove confusion between the 20c and 50c coins. The round 50c was issued only in 1966, there were no 50c issued in 1967 or 1968 so 1969 was the first year of the dodecagonal release. The Currency Act of 1965 was amended in September 1969 to allow for the change of shape and the new release was made in October 1969.

Nuphil heard of this new release and applied to the Royal Australian Mint for advanced copies of the coin to be included in a special PNC. Money changed hands and it was determined that the RAM didn't have the 2,000 coins readily available to supply to Nuphil. The Mint hurriedly struck the 1969 50c pieces on unpolished blanks to fill the order. The PNC's were then assembled at the Mint because, being before the release date the coins were not allowed leave the premises. The covers were assembled by Varian Wilson of Nuphil with the assistance of Ray Whelan (coin dealer) of Healesville, Victoria. The covers were postmarked at the nearest post office available which was Yarralumla in Canberra on 1 September 1969 and were backstamped at Canberra City on the same date.

The exceptional thing to note about this release is that these coins struck on "unpolished blanks" are of specimen quality. This is the only way to obtain a specimen 50c of 1969. Actually, no, that is untrue. It is said that 2,000 of these were struck by the Mint and only 1,330 covers produced and the remainder of the coins distributed as change from the Mint Shop in the RAM itself. The chances of these coins being in top condition is therefore extremely unlikely.

Each of the Yarralumla covers are individually numbered and were issued for USD$7.50 each (which equated to AUD $7.00 at the time). They now realise anything upwards of $800 +.

If you submit coins for third party grading to PCGS or perhaps you're a member over at the PCGS forums then you may be aware of the 'big one' that PCGS was due to announce on 25 March. This 'big one' was supposed to revolutionise the coin grading industry and what the 'big one' was had been the source of constant speculation on the PCGS forums for weeks. Well the announcement was made and all we can really say is *yawn*. PCGS have introduced what they're calling the "Secure Plus Service".

This comprises two main features, firstly a digital fingerprinting service for coins that PCGS can use to identify coins that have been submitted to the Secure Plus service. So if you submit a coin for the Secure Plus service they'll image your coin and use digital indicators to uniquely identify your coin. Theoretically if your coin gets stolen, broken out of a slab and later sent for re-grading PCGS can pick this up straight away and let you know. Oh, incidentally they can also tell if the same coin is being submitted (quite legitimately) over and over again and make sure that coin gets the same grade over and over again, but more on that later.

The second feature of the 'secure plus' service is the plus part. This is a premium grade designator (a '+' symbol) that PCGS will apply to coins that they believe fall into the top 10-15% of coins within a certain grade level. There's no doubt that some coins within a certain grade are better than others and trade for greater values because of this, the plus designation is a way of setting this in concrete. By the way, this isn't a new idea, NGC used to apply a star (*) designation to coins they believed were premium examples within a grade and in recent times a group of high end US coin dealers have started a new grading service called CAC that evaluates PCGS slabbed coins and puts a silver or gold sticker on coins it believes to be premium examples.

So how much does this cost? A minimum of US$65 per coin. Ouch. PCGS is clearly aiming this at the pointy end of the collector market and the common thinking is that if your coin isn't worth $1000-$2000 or more then there's really no financial justification for the US$65 per coin cost. PCGS has also (quite intelligently) offered bonus points for plus designated coins in the PCGS Registry Sets. People who participate actively in these electronic coin league tables will pay ridiculous money for top population coins and the new plus designation gives them something else to chase after and will help fuel those submitting common coins to the Secure Plus Service.

So what do we think of all this? Well we like the Secure part of the service and can see how this will be useful. However we think the real motivation on the behalf of PCGS is to stop what they call 'gradeflation'. Gradeflation happens when someone submits a coin over and over again in an effort to get a higher grade for it. In the US collector market where the value of an MS64 and MS65 coin can be thousands or tens of thousands of dollars different this can be a profitable exercise. Someone submitting a coin over and over is relying on PCGS making just one mistake or perhaps slackening their grading standards slightly and scoring that extra (and very lucrative) grading point. If such a coin had been submitted under the Secure Plus service this just wont happen anymore. PCGS will just identify the coin as being graded previously and assign it the same grade every time and they are not left with egg on their faces. We bet PCGS will happily pocket the grading fees each and every time though.

And the plus designation? It's been done before, it's not new and it's not revolutionary. And it's awful that you have to pay to just to receive the possibility of getting it! Talk about gambling! We'd also question how PCGS can legitimately apply the plus designator to low population coins. If your coin is the first of a year and type graded how can they possibly know if it is or isn't in the top 10-15% of all coins for that grade? Well they can't.

We don't think we'll be submitting any of our coins for Secure Plus grading at any time in the future. It's just too much money and too much of a gamble with regards to the plus designation. What we'd like to see is the Plus applied to all PCGS service levels and the Secure part of the service applied as an optional extra.

If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know that we've written a comprehensive series of articles on many of the different types of error coins. You may also remember that we've written a few articles on fake coin errors like this one on double headed coins and this one on creating your own fake error coin. Well in the spirit of exposing fake coin errors for what they are (fakes) here's another one that's popped up a couple of times in the last month on eBay. You can see these 'one dollar coins missing one side' below.

Now firstly let me say that genuine one sided coins most certainly do exist, and the correct numismatic term for these is 'uniface' coins. They are quite well known in Australian numismatic circles because one of the most desirable pre decimal coins one can acquire is the 1937 uniface pattern florin of 1937. It just so happens that one of these sold in the last week or two in the International Auction Galleries Auction 71 for $152,000 plus buyers commission. So uniface coins do exist, so let's think for just one minute how these might be manufactured. Staff at the mint would deliberately need to install a single die with the coin design into one side of the coin press and another die that is completely blank into the other side. Insert a blank planchet, strike the coin and hey presto you have a uniface coin. So as you can see it is a very deliberate exercise on the part of the mint and not something that can happen 'accidentally'.

But wait, I hear some of you saying what happens if two blanks happen to enter the coining chamber at the same time, are perfectly aligned and struck? Well this would result in two uniface coins too, but there would be some tell tales for these especially for Australian dollar coins. Firstly one or other of the coins probably wouldn't engage properly and you'd either have no rim graining or partial rim graining. The other indicator would be extremely poorly formed rims on both coins. Australian dollar blanks are pre-rimmed and as you can imagine the raised rims of two blanks pressing against each other while being struck would flatten the rims considerably. I should say here while I can accept the possibility of two coins being in a coining chamber at the same time I think the chances of them being so perfectly aligned that some sort of indent error doesn't occur is so minuscule that it hardly bears thinking about. But in the interests of completeness I do mention the possibility of such an error occurring.

In either case, whether it be a deliberately mint produced uniface coin or an accidental uniface coin what would each 'error' weigh? Well if it was a dollar coin it would be 9.0g, the mass of a normal dollar coin. So, now we have two indicators of what constitutes a genuine uniface dollar coin error, firstly it will weigh the correct amount, secondly if it is a genuine accidental uniface error then it should have poorly formed or damaged rims. So let's take a look at the coins above. Both have perfectly formed rims. Wow, they must be deliberately produced uniface coins! So what do they weigh? Well what does the seller on the left say when asked the weight of his coin?

"Sorry no scales"

What does the other seller say?

"I don't have any scales but it feels the same weight as a normal coin"

Hmmm, no scales. What's to stop them going to a jeweler and asking to have these coins weighed? Well nothing of course, nothing at all. So clearly neither sellers have the interests of the buyers in mind and probably have something to hide. The coin on the left has a major red flag that should scare off any potential buyer, you can CLEARLY see concentric circles on the blank side of the coin. This is a clear indicator that this coin has had the design skimmed off by a lathe or mill. This coin is clearly not an error and anyone paying more than one dollar on it is simply throwing their money away.

But what about the coin on the right? There's no tool marks on that is there? Well honestly that doesn't mean anything, tool marks can easily be burnished out by a competent machinist. But for the sake of argument let's just consider for second that this coin really does weigh 9g, this seller really has found a uniface coin! Amazing! In 2004 (because the seller says it is a 2004 coin but never actually shows you the obverse in the auction so you can't tell) the mint deliberately made a uniface coin and somehow it got out of the mint and this person obtained it! That's just amazing! Find of the century! Sadly no, in 2004 the RAM made 50,000 uniface dollar coins to proof standards and put them in the 2004 proof sets but not before sticking a pretty hologram mob of roos design on it. Break one of these 2004 proof sets up, apply a bit of acetone to the dollar coin (like we did here) and you have a uniface 2004 proof dollar coin. Of course the seller doesn't want us to know it's a proof (and never actually shows the obverse for anyone to see) and not an error coin at all, just post mint damage.

So if you see a uniface coin for sale what lessons should you take from this?

1. Ask for the mass of the coin, if the seller doesn't have scales tell them to take the coin to a jeweler and have it weighed to the nearest 10th of a gram. If the seller refuses or stalls don't walk away from the coin, run!
2. If the blank side of the coin shows tool marks AND the coin mass is unknown run away even faster! I should say here that the presence of tool marks doesn't preclude a genuine coin, the 1937 uniface florins show tool marks from the blank reverse die.
3. As in any potential coin purchase demand to see images of both sides of the coin before committing to purchase, if the seller refuses or stalls walk away.
4. Do your research, 5 minutes of work would have revealed that in 2004 the proof set contained a pad printed coin issue. It's your money, if you're not willing to spend some time making sure it's spent properly then why should anyone else?

So the coin on the right sold for nearly $500 and the coin on the left has been bid up to $30 or so as this article was written. The seller of the coin on the right has gotten away with numismatic murder and the seller of the coin on the left is bottom grubbing in the worst way by trying to cash in on some people's ignorance. If you had any doubts of this just take a look at the two ebay auction titles:

Coin on right (first coin sold)
"1 Dollar ERROR Missing OneSide!! Estate Sale On Coins!!"

Coin on left (being auctioned right now)
"1 Dollar ERROR Missing OneSide!!"

Note the spelling an capitalising, exactly the same. Awful behaviour. That's all I have to say on these 'errors', don't bid on them, don't buy them, don't support such behaviour by these sorts of sellers.

We've just written an article on The Purple Penny website about using The Purple Penny storage products for other collectables such as a badge collection. The principles of storage for coins can be easily transferred to other types of collections. Have a read of our ideas for the storage of a readers collection.

Sometimes, no matter how careful you are you'll find that your coins will develop toning or carbon spots while they are in your albums. If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know exactly how careful the authors of this blog are storing our collections, we make use of archival grade coin albums, PVC free coin album pages, and the excellent PET SAFLIP coin holders. Despite all of this I was interested to find a coin in my collection that had toned considerably since it was purchased about 2 years ago. You can see the reverse of the coin below, the image on the left was taken when it was purchased and the one on the right just yesterday. You can certainly see the difference!

Closer examination of the large (and pretty ugly) toning spot on the coin indicated that it was a fingerprint. If you don't know it your fingers are covered in skin oils and these can certainly adhere to the surface of a coin and over time will etch and tone the surface of a coin and clearly this is what happened here. When I receive coins for my own collection I only handle them wearing cotton gloves so I was fairly certain that I hadn't left a big greasy fingerprint on this coin, so I took a closer look at the image of the coin from a couple of years ago. You can see the detailed comparison of the coin two years apart below.

You can see that in 2008 the coin had faint toning in the centre of the coat of arms and traces of a fingerprint in the fields above the eagles wing. So obviously the fingerprint was there when I received the coin. It's also apparent that the coin had most likely been dipped at some time as the lustre was flat and a little un-natural. This wouldn't have concerned me as I buy these taler restrikes partly out of interest and partly because they are a fun (and attractive) way to hold silver bullion. So perhaps this past dip was designed to remove an old fingerprint? Well whatever the case, it didn't work as the toning in the centre of the coat of arms has darkened and spread and the fingerprint has bloomed horribly. So what are the lessons that can be learned from this?

1. Handle all your coins when they are out of their holders wearing clean cotton gloves. At least then you can be assured that any fingerprints on a coin are not yours!
2. Make sure you take a look at your collection regularly to keep an eye on the condition of your coins. If a coin is toning keep an eye on it, if red copper is going brown consider re-holdering it, and if coins are developing verdigris isolate those coins and treat them immediately.
3. Take images of your coins when you buy them, you'll be able to refer back and see if they are changing.
4. Consider giving all your new coins a quick rinse in acetone before storing them. This will not effect the surface of the coins but it will remove any residual oils and organic material from the surface of the coin.
5. Use proper storage materials, remove PVC from your collection and use archival grade storage accessories. At least then you can be happy that any toning or change in the condition of your coins was a process that started before you obtained your coins. Remember that toning is often an active and on-going process and may have started before you got a coin and will often continue once you have it in your collection regardless of how you store your coins.

So what could I have done to stop my 1780 taler restrike from toning like it has? Well I could have given it a quick bath in acetone when I got it in 2008 (and I may well have done but I don't remember). Given that I can see some toning on the 2008 image of the coin the process had probably started already. Acetone may have removed other oils on the coin and prevented the extent of the toning but I am sure the toning would have darkened anyway. From a storage point of view there's not a lot more I could have done, the coin has been stored in a SAFLIP, in a PVC free coin album page which was stored in an archival grade polypropylene coin album.

I'll make a mental note to bring this coin out again in a year or so and take a look and see if the toning continues to progress. The coin hasn't been treated in any way so it should be interesting to see what it looks like in a year!

2009 marked the 60th Anniversary since the enactment of the Australian Citizenship Act of 1948. This parliamentary act came into effect on the 26th January 1949. Prior to this date all people living in Australia were considered British subjects so the enactment of this legislation meant that we now could truly call ourselves Australian. Hence the foundation of our national holiday, Australia Day on the 26th January each year. In February 1949 seven men (each representing an Australian state) from Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, Norway, Spain and Yugoslavia became Australian citizens in the first-ever Australian citizenship ceremony held in Canberra, the nations capital.

The mintmark coin released by the Royal Australian Mint in 2009 was a one dollar issued to commemorate this event. The reverse designed by Wojciech Pietranik featured the heads of the 7 new Australian citizens surrounding a globe of the world which represented their diverse international origins. Their heads are shown resting in the grooves of the federation star, the star symbolically depicts their raised hands and their new Australian pride is shown on their faces. This central design is surrounded by an Australian map cut into squares for each state. The legend reads "60th Anniversary of Australian Citizenship One Dollar". The reverse also showed Pietranik's initals above the N of ONE (dollar).

The obverse was the standard Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II seen on almost all standard circulating currency since 1999. This dollar coin issue was the standard 25mm, 9 gram aluminium bronze dollar you would ordinarily find in your change but this design was not released into circulation.

The coin was released with a number of mintmarks and privy marks and these can be seen in the reverse fields at approx. 2 o'clock. The citizenship dollar had a C mintmark, or S, B, or M privymarks. There were no counterstamp issues in 2009. Are you lost? Have a look at the definitions in our "Mintmarks, Privymarks and Counterstamps. What is the difference?" post. The C mintmark coin was also struck on the gallery presses at the RAM from the 1st January 2009. There were also 2 issues, the Cmm and the B privymark overprinted for the Brisbane Coin Fairs. A silver proof version of the citizenship dollar was issued with a C mintmark.

Mintages of all of the 2009 Citizenship dollar issues can be found on the 2009 Issues and Mintages table.

Author and illustrator Dorothy Wall was born in 1894 and died in 1942. Born in New Zealand and migrating to Australia in 1914 she was most well known as the author of the popular childrens' classic stories of which Blinky Bill was the significant character. Blinky Bill is arguably one of Australia's most famous Koala's representing a uniquely Australian larrikin spirit in Dorothy Walls' stories and illustrations. Blinky Bill stories have been enjoyed by children since the 1930's and Wall's books continue to be reprinted to this day. Wall wrote and illustrated 3 Blinky Bill stories and a third was released as The Complete Adventures comprising of all 3 books.

The theme for the baby mint and proof sets produced by the Royal Australian Mint in 2009, 2010 and 2011 was Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall. A fitting theme for a set designed as a gift to commemorate a special newborns birth. The packaging features illustrations of Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall. The special Dorothy Wall one dollar is only featured in the baby mint set, not the proof set.

The reverse depicts a likeness of Dorothy Wall with 4 small Blinky Bill's in differing poses to the right of the portrait. The legends read "Dorothy Wall Blinky Bill One Dollar" on the reverse. This design was by Wojciech Pietranik but does not bear his initials.

It is a standard size 25mm 9 gram Australian legal tender aluminium bronze one dollar coin but was not released into circulation (thus an NCLT), it is only found in the baby mint (uncirculated) set. The obverse is the standard Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II.

With 2009 being declared the International Year of Astronomy the Royal Australian Mint used this theme for their year sets and a special commemorative one dollar coin and 20c. The theme "The Universe, Yours to Discover" aimed to raise awareness of Australia's contributions to astronomy and encourage young people to become involved in this exciting science and hobby. 2009 realises 400 years since Galileo first recorded observations with a telescope in 1609.

This one dollar design features the Parkes radio telescope in NSW, Australia. This 64 metre movable radio dish is probably the most well known because of the audio and images it captured and relayed of the Apollo 11 lunar mission in which 600 million people watched and listened to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men on the moon July 21st 1969.

The reverse is sculpted by RAM designer Caitlin Goodall and features the Parkes dish in the rural landscape of NSW. The design depicts sheep grazing in the fenced pasture dwarfed by the size of the telescope. The obverse is the standard Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. This dollar coin issue is the standard 25mm,9 gram aluminium bronze dollar you would ordinarily find in your change but this design was not released into circulation.

This commemorative $1 was included in the 6 coin proof set (issue price $115) and the two coin uncirculated mint sets (issue price $15) and this is the only way to obtain one of these coins. For the mintages of these please see the 2009 one dollar mintages table.

Below is one of the displays at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra showing the designers sketches and plaster from the manufacturing and design process of the production of this coin.

In 2009 the Royal Australian Mint continued with a plethora of releases of the standard 25mm, 9 gram, aluminium bronze one dollar coin. All Issues featured the standard Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II except one, the gold issue (released as a single coin and not in a set) featured the original Arnold Machin portrait. There was a release of standard design mob of roos dollars into circulation as well as a commemorative issue (into circulation) for the Centenary of the Aged Pension. These Pension dollars were also available in commemorative RAM wrappered Rolls.

2009 continued with the idea of differentiating mintmark issues with mintmarks, counterstamps and privymarks. There was however, no counterstamp dollars issued as the RAM didn't take their portable press to any venues in 2009.

A well-known coin dealer in Queensland, VP Coins, kept up with their plan to boost show attendance at the Brisbane Coin shows by overprinting the pivymark folders with special lettering to commemorate the show. Apparently examples of these overprints (which started in 2008) are in the RAM collection so we can assume they've been recognised by them as official releases.

Following on with the pad printed coloured series of coins another 2 coins were released in the Land Series which were the final coins in this series. An Air series had been planned but was canned due to collector protests over the large number of collector dollars released by the RAM.

2009 was named International Year of Astronomy with the Mint Set, Proof Set and Fine Silver Year Set issues reflecting this event.

Year	Description	Type	Mint Mark	Composition	Notes	Mintage
2009	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Circulation	21,260,000
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Berlin World money Fair	500
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Australia Post Baby Keepsake Card	7,700
	Centenary of the Aged Pension	Circulation	None	AlBr	Circulation	10,158,000
	Centenary of the Aged Pension	Circulation	None	AlBr	RAM Roll	7,950
	Citizenship 60th anniversary	Circulation	C mm	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	86,207
	Citizenship 60th anniversary	Circulation	C mm	AlBr	RAM Gallery Press	67,896
	Citizenship 60th anniversary	Circulation	C mm	AlBr	Brisbane Coin Fair Overprint Feb	1,493 incl. in above mintage
	Citizenship 60th anniversary	Circulation	S Privymark	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	38,202
	Citizenship 60th anniversary	Circulation	B Privymark	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	39,450
	Citizenship 60th anniversary	Circulation	B Privymark	AlBr	Brisbane Coin Fair Overprint September	1,496 incl. in above mintage
	Citizenship 60th anniversary	Circulation	M Privymark	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	36,763
	Citizenship 60th anniversary	Proof	C mm	.999 Silver	Silver Proof Interrupted Reeding	7,050
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	Master Mintmark	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	23,758
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	Master Mintmark Counterstamp	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	6,500
	Steve Irwin	Circulation	None	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	35,058
	Steve Irwin	Circulation	None	AlBr	Corporate Order	325
	Year of the Ox	Circulation	None	AlBr	Lunar Coin Series	17,642
	Year of the Ox	Proof	None	.999 Silver	Lunar Coin Series	5,000
	Bilby	Frosted Unc/Proof Rev	None	AlBr	Coloured Land Series	17,950
	Frilled Neck Lizard	Frosted Unc/Proof Rev	None	AlBr	Coloured Land Series	2,690
	Australia Post Bicentenary	Circulation	None	AlBr	PNC	32,000
	Australia Post Bicentenary	Circulation	None	AlBr	Melbourne Stamp Show overprint PNC	300
	Australia Post Bicentenary	Circulation	None	AlBr	Australia Post 2 Coin Set	7,200
	Dorothy Wall	Circulation	None	AlBr	Blinky Bill Baby Mint Set	34,179
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Mint Set	50,957
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Brisbane ANDA Mint Set	1500
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Melbourne ANDA Mint Set	1,497
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Sydney ANDA Mint Set	1,498
	International Year of Astronomy	Circulation	None	AlBr	2 Coin Unc Set	25,114
	International Year of Astronomy	Proof	None	AlBr	Proof Set	23,257
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	AlBr	2 Coin Proof Set	9,599
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	AlBr	Blinky Bill Baby Proof Set	12,307
	Mob of Roos	Specimen	None	AlBr	Wedding Set	2,824
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	.999 Silver	Fine Silver Year Set	2,231
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	.999 Gold	Ram and Dealer Sales	1,000

Footnotes: 11/11/11: All issues have been updated with the 10-11 RAM annual report figures. Mintages may not be final.