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
