Australia 1966 Decimal Heritage Set Proof Coins -image courtesy RAM
With the recent release of the 1966 Decimal Currency Heritage Set it's worth a discussion about the limited issue of the coins contained in this framed set. The Royal Australian Mint produced a mintage of just 400 of these framed sets which contain 2010 dated proof 1c, 2c and round 50c coins.
The 1 and 2c bronze coins were removed from circulation in 1991. Since then, only in the 40th anniversary of decimal currency sets in 2006 have we seen strikes of the Feather-Tailed Glider and Frilled Neck Dragon Lizard. Both the 2006 Mint and Proof sets featured these coins with the current Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II.
2006 Mint set uncirculated (incl. ANDA and Berlin Fair overprints) mintage 87,407
2006 Proof Set mintage 45,373
2006 Pure Gold Set mintage 300
The 2006 Fine Silver year Set mintage was 5,829 with the original Arnold Machin obverse of QEII.
The round 80% silver version of our Coat of Arms 50c piece was issued only in 1966 with the Arnold Machin effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. From 1969 it was issued as a cupro-nickel dodecagonal coin.
It has a mintage of 36,252,000 coins which mostly are traded as silver bullion today and a proof mintage of just 18,066 coins in 1966 sets. These sets were issued in blue cases and a lot haven't faired well over time.
The 80% silver round 50c was restruck for the 2006 proof sets only with the Ian Rank-Broadley "older" obverse of Queen Elizabeth II.
2006 Proof set mintage is 45,373
2006 Pure Gold Set mintage 300
2006 Fine Silver Year Set mintage 5,829 with the original Arnold Machin obverse.
So to recap the above mintages, the 2010 1c, 2c and round 50c proofs with a 400 mintage are the lowest mintage issues of these coins in their original composition.
Lets just take a moment now. It's likely the RAM reused the reverse dies they previously used to strike the 2006 issues. They would have however needed to make new dies of the correct sizes for the 1c, 2c and round 50c with the Ian Rank-Broadley obverse to strike these 2010 coins. Did they go to all that trouble to strike just 400 of each coin? Will we see another issue with these coins included. It's a bit late in the year for this thought to come to fruition, but, still possible.
These 400 framed sets are likely to see a firm rise in value due to their tiny mintage. Congratulations to those who managed to secure a set.
Posted by harrisk at December 1, 2010 12:22 PM
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