Impurities, foreign material or gas is the reason for the obviously serious defect in this 1961 Australian shilling. So major is the defect that I believe with little effort this coin could be broken in half (not that I'm going to try)! Often seen on all coin types, minor planchet flaws don't always command a premium price. Sometimes they are just an annoying detraction on a beautiful high grade lustrous coin. But for the error collector, spectacular errors like this one are always sought after.

Planchet and lamination flaws come in all shapes and sizes, many of which can be seen if you have a look through our master article of coin errors.

You often see flaws in the metal blanks used to strike coins but rarely do you see coins so obviously wrong as the clamshell error. These planchets contain lamination problems deep inside the metal which splits the 2 sides apart with only a hinge remaining. While not always possible to store these in a 2x2 holder I have seen these stored in flip top coin boxes as they are very much 3 dimensional objects.

The Australian threepence seen above has probably seen some human involvement to prise the 2 sides apart, but never the less an interesting example of this type of planchet defect error. The lamination flaw, weakness or impurity ran through the centre of the coin allowing it to split open. The flaw may have been caused by the alloy not being mixed properly when the blanks were being prepared or a foreign material or gas being trapped inside the blank as the sheet metal was being rolled.

If the weakness ran through the entire body of the coin and each side of the coin became separated it would end up looking like a complete split planchet coin.

The biggest event on the British Royal calendar for 2011 is to be the wedding of Prince William to Miss Kate Middleton, which will be held on April 29th at Westminster Abbey. Their engagement was announced on November 16th 2010 and soon after it was revealed that the Royal Australian Mint would strike official coins to celebrate the engagement of the happy couple and their upcoming marriage.

To commemorate the engagement and the impending nuptials two Australian 50c coins are set to be released, a wedding coin to go into circulation and the engagement coin seen above released for the collector market. This uncirculated cupro-nickel 50c is to be released in a collector card and will also be released in silver proof with selective gold plating in a 2-coin set with the official wedding coin. The 2-coin set with a limited mintage of just 10,000 sets produced. The reverse coin design by Stuart Devlin, the official Royal Jeweller, is of a collection of roses in a circle and Prince William's coat of arms surrounded by ornate ribbons. It is Devlin's designs of Australian fauna that you see on most circulation coins in your change today.

The Official Royal Engagement coin is to be dated 2010 and the obverse is the standard Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Williams Grandmother. It is the standard circulation type dodecagonal 50c coin, 31.51mm in diameter. The coin has an unlimited mintage and available at issue price of $8.95.

The 2010 Royal Engagement 50c is set to be released on 30th March 2011.

2011 is set to be the year of Counterstamped dollars after the mobile press returned to public events in November 2010 at the Canberra ANDA Coin and Banknote show. We have already seen the mobile coin press travel to Perth in February, it's first ever visit to Western Australia. An article about the Perth Counterstamp can be seen in the latest edition of Australian Coin and Banknote Magazine April 2011.

We're aware that the mobile press intends to travel to Brisbane for the ANDA show in May and since the release yesterday of the latest currency determination we now know it will also travel to the Melbourne ANDA show in July, Sydney ANDA show in August and Adelaide ANDA show later in the year.

It was November 19th 2010 just after the announcement of the Royal engagement of William and Kate that the Royal Australian Mint announced that they would produce the official Australian coinage for this special event. Australians waited patiently and saw Alderney be the first to mint an official engagement coin.

In the first currency determination for 2011 we now know that coin designs have been approved by Her Majesty to be minted for the upcoming royal nuptuals. The Royal Australian Mint will mint a cupro-nickel 20c to be released into circulation in 2011. The design will feature both William and Kate and a rose enclosed in a circle. This will be the official Royal Wedding coin.

A 2011 Royal Wedding 50c of the same design in uncirculated finish will be released in a commemorative collector card for collectors. A fine silver 50c coin of the same design will be struck with selective gold plating.

Commemorating the Royal engagement, a 2010 dated uncirculated 50c will be released in a collector card. The design will feature a collection of roses in a circle and a representation of Prince William's coat of arms surrounded by ornate ribbons. A selectively gold plated fine silver proof version of this coin will also be minted.

Both selectively gold plated engagement and wedding coins will be released in a 2 coin set and all coins should be available as Royal followers stop for the wedding event set for April 29th.

The department of Treasury have today released the first currency determination for 2011 with some interesting potential coins in the pipeline for this year. I say potential coins because being included in the determination doesn't mean these coins will be struck, it simply means they have been approved by the government. A final determination will be made by treasury at a later date and it may well be that they consider enough coins of a certain denomination to be in circulation and one of the releases just will not happen. We saw this with the 2011 Australian Day 50c that wasn't.

This determination includes three circulating 20c designs, this means all 3 are set to be released into pocketchange.
1. Royal Wedding 20c
2. Centenary of International Womens Day 20c
3. 10th anniversary of International Year of Volunteers (IYV) 20c

Aluminium bronze commemorative dollars set to be released into circulation are:
1. CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) Perth $1

If all 4 coins are minted and released into circulation then this will be one of the few times that we have seen so many different themed commemoratives in the one year enter circulation.

The 100 Years of Service of the Army PNC features the NCLT one dollar coin released by the Royal Australian Mint with a C mintmark. We've previously written about this Army Centenary coin here.

The Army Centenary aluminium bronze one dollar was included in this PNC released jointly by Australia Post and the Mint. 27,209 stamp and coin covers were released for $7.85 each.

An inner card holds the coin inside an envelope with a window for the coin. The envelope features an image from the Australian War Memorial archives of the 13th Australian Light Horse moving up past Gressaire Wood to participate in the attack near Bray by the 9th Infantry Brigade during WWI. The PNC features two 45c stamps featuring early conflict and modern scenes of the help that the Army provides. The coin and stamp cover was released on 15th February 2001

Released in a joint venture between the Royal Australian Mint and the Perth Mints the above coin is one of 28 $5 coins released to celebrate the 2000 Olympic Games held in Sydney, Australia as part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program.

This coin featuring Canoeing or Kayaking was released as number 4/28. It was released in the third issue of coins available from September 1998. This series of coins were issued in several releases in the 3 years prior to the Games.

Canoeing or Kayaking origins date back to the Eskimos and North American Indians and became an official Olympic Sport at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Approximately 100,000 of these Kayaking non-circulating legal tender (or NCLT) coins were released into the collector market at $8.95 each. This coin featuring the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of the Queen. More information about this coin and the other 27 in the series can be found in the master article Sydney 2000 Olympic Games $5 Coin Collection.

Twenty eight of the above coins were released over a period of 3 years in the lead-up to the Games each depicting a sport in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. This Modern Pentathlon coin is the 3rd in the series but was issued in the 7th and final release in May 2000. It is part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program which was released jointly between the Royal Australian Mint and the Perth Mints.

The Modern Pentathlon is depicted on the reverse which was introduced to the Games in 1912 by the founder of the Modern Olympic Movement Baron Pierre de Coubertin. It features swimming, running, fencing, pistol shooting and horse riding.

Approximately 100,000 of these coins were issued for $8.95 each, this coin with the Ian Rank-Broadley obverse of Queen Elizabeth II. It is legal tender for $5 and is struck in an alloy of copper, tin, aluminium and zinc. More information about this coin and the other 27 in the series can be found in the master article Sydney 2000 Olympic Games $5 Coin Collection.

While I was investigating the characteristics of Die Adjustment Strike Error Coins recently I went to my error coin folder to get out my blank $2 planchet. This was so I could compare it's diameter and edge characteristics with the die adjustment strike error coin we had in our possession that was to be the subject of a blog article. I had planned to compare the error coin with the blank planchet photographically so I placed the blank on our copystand and peered through the viewfinder to focus camera and saw something odd on the 'blank'. There was a strange line visible that didn't look like a scratch or mark that you typically see on a coin blank. Pulling the planchet off of the stand I peered at it under a loupe and lo and behold it appeared that my "blank" was in fact ANOTHER die adjustment strike error! You can see the coin in question below:

To say I was excited is an understatement, I was literally jumping up and down in excitement! The moral of the story is, that no matter how a coin is described when you buy it you should always examine it closely when it arrives for a couple of reasons. Firstly just to make sure it isn't cleaned or damaged in some way and secondly to make sure it really is what you expect it to be. I can think of a couple of other error coins I've bought over the years that turned out to be a lot more interesting that the seller realised they were. An example that springs to mind is a clipped planchet 20c that turned out to be a clipped planchet AND a partial collar error. Another was a blank penny planchet that also had a small edge clip! Away from the topic of errors you might find that a coin you've bought is a rare variety, perhaps your 1942I half penny is a long reverse denticles variety, or your 1966 mint set contains a wavy 20c. Sure, these events are rare but it's well worth your time educating yourself and spending that extra minute or two examining your new purchases!

Above you can see a very weakly struck Australian $2 coin and below it, a properly struck $2 coin of the same era. You'll note that the barest impression of the Queen's portrait is visible on the error coin and just a couple of design elements are visible on the reverse design. The portrait we can see is that sculpted by Raphael Maklouf, so this error was minted sometime from 1988 to 1998.

This is coin is an error which is commonly known as a 'die adjustment strike' error coin. Theory has it that these coins are produced by the operators of the minting presses who are running various trials and strike coins at different operating pressures, perhaps to determine the ideal striking pressure of the coin press or for some other reason. Die adjustment strike errors can occur with varying degrees of strike weakness and the one shown above is clearly at the bottom end of the scale as the coin has barely been struck at all! It's worth having a quick look at another Die Adjustment Strike error before we discuss why these errors are due to a low striking pressure rather than being struck through oil.

The above Die Adjustment Strike error shows just the faintest trace of the Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Her Majesty. This coin was (only barely) struck sometime between 1999 and the present day.

So, how can we tell these errors are extremely weak strikes rather than a filled die or perhaps a sanded down coin? There are several distinguishing characteristics:

1. The coin mass is correct (an Australian $2 coin should weigh 6.60g, the above coins weigh 6.53 and 6.58g respectively).
2. The diameter of the coins is slightly smaller than their fully struck counterparts. The implies that the coin has not 'spread' as much due to the lower striking pressure. The above coins both measure a fraction under 20mm in diameter where as a fully struck $2 coin measures in at 20.6mm.
3. There is no reeding present on the edges of the coin. The reeding is applied by the fixed collar die, and relies on the striking pressure to expand the coin sufficiently to press against the collar die and apply the reeding. This has not happened.
4. The rims are not fully formed. The rims on a properly struck $2 coin are wide and flat. The die adjustment strike errors show the typical shallow rims that were applied to the blank by an upsetting mill before being struck.

Authors Note

While these errors are commonly referred to as "die adjustment strike errors" we believe that there's a very good possibility that they are in fact just very weak strikes due to press malfunctions. One would imagine that coins struck from trials would be jealously guarded and unlikely to escape the mint. It seems more likely that high speed presses striking hundreds of coins a minute could experience occasional malfunctions due to pneumatic or hydraulic blockages and this would result in the full striking pressure not being applied to one or more coins. The idea that coins struck during these failures could escape the mint seems entirely more plausible than test strikes escaping the eyes of vigilant press operators.

The above coin was issued in May 2000 in the 7th and last release of coins in a set of 28 in commemoration of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. These 28 five dollar coins were part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program released jointly between the Royal Australian Mint and the Perth Mints.

The Aquatics coin features the Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II and is Australian legal tender for $5. Swimming events have been contested at the summer Olympic Games since the very first in 1896 in Athens. It began in 1896 with the 100m freestyle race for gold and now includes diving, synchronised swimming and water polo.

Issued for $8.95 it is not certain exactly how many of these coins were struck however it is likely approximately 100,000 of the Aquatics coin were minted. Struck in an alloy of copper, tin, aluminium and bronze more information about this coin and the other 27 in the series can be found in the master article Sydney 2000 Olympic Games $5 Coin Collection.

The above coin was issued in October 1997 in the first release of coins in a set of 28 in commemoration of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. These 28 five dollar coins were part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program released jointly between the Royal Australian Mint and the Perth Mints.

The Athletics coin features the Maklouf portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II and is Australian legal tender for $5. It celebrates the heroes of nations that are made on the track and in the field of the Olympic Games. This includes the marathon which is considered the event that best encapsulates the Olympic spirit both ancient and modern.

Issued for $8.95 it is not certain how many of these coins were struck however it is likely in excess of 203,000 of the Athletics coin were minted. Struck in an alloy of copper, tin, aluminium and bronze more information of this coin and the other 27 in the series can be found in the master article Sydney 2000 Olympic Games $5 Coin Collection.

There was so much excitement in the lead-up to the Olympic Games in Sydney in the year 2000. Releases of pins, phonecards, coins and medallions were plentiful and were being snapped by the public as colourful memento's of their experiences as Australians' with an Olympic Games being held in their country, the first since Melbourne in 1956. Jumping onto the bandwagon releasing a plethora of collectables was the two Australian Mint's the Perth Mint and the Royal Australian Mint.

One release in collaboration with both Mints in the Official Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Collection was 28 individual $5 coins minted over a period of 3 years in the lead-up to the event. Collectors purchased these coins individually and housed them in a special folder to complete the collection.

Each of the 28 coins was struck by the Royal Australian Mint with a legal tender value of five dollars. Interestingly some of these coins were issued with the Raphael Maklouf portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and some the Ian Rank-Broadley design but are all dated 2000. Each individual reverse depicts a sport of the Olympic Games and was co-designed by Philip Holiday, Wojciech Pietranik and Vladimir Gottwald.

This bronze coin series also includes a special subscribers medal. Each coin and medal weighs 20 grams and is 38.74mm in diameter and all feature continuous edge milling. Each is composed of Aluminium, Zinc and Bronze.

Each of the 28 coins are listed below and link to an individual article:

Athletics
Aquatics
Modern Pentathlon
Canoe/Kayak
Hockey
Basketball
Judo
Triathlon
Archery
Rowing
Boxing
Handball
Gymnastics
Badminton
Fencing
Softball
Sailing
Volleyball
Taekwondo
Football
Weightlifting
Equestrian
Table Tennis
Wrestling
Cycling
Shooting
Baseball
Tennis

note: all entries aren't completed yet but will be in the coming months.

The recent release of the 1966 Heritage Set has sparked interest in coin designs that could have been. The heritage set included resin replicas of alternate designs for decimal currency when Australia first changed from pounds, shillings and pence on February 14th 1966.

When decimal currency was first introduced Australia had a paper $2 note. It wasn't until June 20th 1988 that it was replaced with a 2 dollar coin. A coin would have a longer circulation life than the old paper notes.

There was much consideration because the new coin had to be serviceable and recognisable by the public. Many sizes, shapes, thicknesses and compositions were considered as well as a design that was going to complement Stuart Devlin's designs already in circulation.

Just two of the designs considered for the new $2 coin can be seen above.

"Operation Fastbuck" was the name used for the safe delivery of decimal currency to the banks during the changeover from £/s/d to dollars and cents on February 14th 1966. 70 drivers were involved in the transfer of the new money in preparation for C-Day, the day Australia would start using the new currency.

These 70 drivers were presented with this special wallet embossed with their name as a thank you for their participation in the event. This is the rarest of the 1966 mint sets and is highly sought after by collectors. They very rarely come up for sale.

The pvc wallet is a dark green colour on the outside with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) logo. Inside the 1966 uncirculated coins are housed in a hard plastic rectangular insert which is removable. The inscription on the black pvc folder reads "Presented by the Reserve Bank of Australia to L. Scorey as a memento of his participation in "Operation Fastbuck" Nov 1965- Feb 1966.

This particular wallet was issued to Les Scorey who has sinced passed away but his family have fond memories of these hard times when Mr Scorey was away from home for long periods tending to this most important event.

RIP Les, we salute your involvement in such a historical event in Australia's history.

1994 was proclaimed International Year of the family by the United Nations and the Royal Australian Mint released a commemorative 50c into circulation for the event. More information about this coin can be found in the 1994 International Year of the Family 50c entry.

This coin as well as being issued into circulation was the very first coin to be featured in a PNC released by Australia Post. This was the beginning of many coin and stamp covers released over the years by the Australian postal giant.

There are 2 varieties of this coin and the differences are in the spacing of the date on the coin obverse. Narrow date and wide date variations exist and the narrow date type is the rarer coin type found in the PNC.

148,393 PNC's were issued jointly with the Royal Australian Mint and Australia Post on April 14th 1994 for $3.95.

When Australia changed to decimal currency from pounds, shillings and pence on February 14th 1966 many organisations, banks and retailers distributed charts and tables to help ease the public through the transition. Changing from a £/s/d system to the decimal system was not an easy conversion as there were some denominations which did not have a direct replacement such as the half penny.

One example of the ingenuity of some of the businesses trading during the changeover is the converter seen above. Not content with a simple table to convert the total sum of your purchases made, the Marlboro tobacco company went that extra step further and this collectable is certainly a nifty little device.

Protruding the top of the cigarette packet shaped card are three movable cigarettes. Below this hidden in the packet design are numbers that magically change. As seen left above the converter sits at 0-0. Move the cigarettes up and 2 pence equals 2 cents (above middle), then 10 shillings equals one dollar (above right). How cool!

The reverse of this converter is a handy calendar of November 1965-October 1966.

disclaimer: smoking harms your health.

The Melbourne Mint which was a branch of the Royal Mint in London produced many of the test pieces considered for decimal currency. They were struggling with pre-decimal coin production and didn't have the capacity to create the 1,000 million coins needed (for just the first year) if the country moved to decimalisation.

In 1958 cabinet agreed to establish a new Mint in Canberra to facilitate the change to decimal currency. Senior staff from the Melbourne Mint played a key role in developing the new currency and planning the new mint. In 1962 building commenced at the Deakin site at an estimated cost of £1.8 million. Another site considered was one at Camp Hill right next to the now (New) Parliament House.

The Royal Australian Mint in Deakin, ACT was first opened on February 22nd 1965 by His Royal Highness, The Prince Phillip (the Queen's husband), the Duke of Edinburgh. It was the first Australian Mint that was not a branch of the British Royal Mint. The Sydney, Melbourne and Perth Mints were all branches of the Royal Mint and were governed by the British. It was time for Australia to find it's own feet.

The new Mint allowed all facets of production to be done under the one roof, where previously this had not been possible. From pencil sketches of designs to creating master and production dies then to alloying pure metals into ingots, rolling these ingots into strips, cutting blanks from these strips and rolling the end coin product into paper to be transported to banks and retailers. The new Royal Australian Mint was at the height of techonological advancement at the time of it's opening, just prior to the decimal changeover in 1966.

Above shows the official Mint opening by HRH with the presentation of (a duplicate of) the below coin set and the wooden bowl used to catch the first coins struck at the new Mint. This photograph, coin set and bowl are on display at the First Floor Museum at the Royal Australian Mint in Denison Street, Deakin ACT.

The Australia Remembers series of NCLT 20c continues with a third release in March 2011. Previous issues have been the 2010 Lost Soldiers of Fromelles 20c, PNC and 2009 Service Nurses 20c. This series recognises and celebrates those people who made history beyond the battlefields.

The 2011 coin remembers War Historians who shaped our perceptions of conflicts since the Boer War. People such as Australia's most famous war correspondent Charles Edwin Woodrow (CEW) Bean who was the first official correspondent of the First World War and founder of the Australian War Memorial, and Damien Parer, one of Australia's most famous combat cameramen who was killed by Japanese machine guns in 1944 whilst filming marines advancing under fire.

The image depicted on the reverse of the coin sculpted by the Royal Australian Mints' Wojciech Pietranik was designed using an image from the Australian War Memorial photographic archives. Of course some changes had to be made for the image to transform to a coin design and the official photographer, Captain George Hubert Wilkins, MC was removed for the coin. Staff Sergeant William Joyce is seen standing with tripod and camera on a British Mark V tank as the pair record the advance of Australian troops through the Hindenburg Line. Of course this coin design is meant to be a representation of all war historians and celebrate those who brought the front line back to those at home.

The obverse of the coin depicts the standard Ian Rank-Broadley image of HM Queen Elizabeth II. This 20c is released as non-circulating legal tender (NCLT) and is housed in a capsule in an informative card. The card design features red Flanders Poppies, an important symbol of remembrance and another image from the War Memorial archives of war correspondent Mr L. O'Dwyer interviewing members of the 2/8 infantry battalion in New Guinea, 1945.

Issued for $6.95 this uncirculated 11.3g 28.52mm cupro nickel 20c will not be found in your change.

The Royal Australian Mint, the Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten and the Minister for the Status of Women Kate Ellis have announced today that a commemorative coin will be released into circulation. The cupro nickel 20c commemorates 100 years of International Womens Day, today, March 8th 2011. The coin will follow a tradition of depicting strong, historically traditional women on coins and banknotes in Australia but the design doesn't feature anyone specifically. It recognises this milestone for women and pays tribute to the past and future contributions of Australian women to the development of Australia's prosperity.

The Last Anzacs was the theme for the 1999 mintmark coin released by the Royal Australian Mint depicting a proud Anzac soldier. An interesting addition to these releases, a coin with the same design but dated 2000 was released only in a PNC for Australia Day in 2000. This PNC was released on January 21, 2000 in Canberra.

It's release in this PNC commemorated the Australia Post Australian Legends Awards which honours living Australians who have made an enormous impact on how Australians think about themselves and their country. This award has been presented each year since 1997 (interestingly prior to 1997 the only living persons allowed on stamps were memebers of the Royal family). The 2000 award honoured the last surviving Australian Anzacs and the men whose feats at Gallipoli shaped the nations self-image. In 2000, the award was presented to Roy Longmore who was a 21 year old tunnel digger at Gallipoli, Walter Parker who carried vital ammunition and water to the troops at Gallipoli and Alec Campbell who enlisted at sixteen and fought in the trenches of Gallipoli. These men were depicted on the stamps seen on the cover of this PNC. Each of the men were also awarded the 1914-15 Star which is seen on the 4th stamp in the series and on the cover of the PNC. Each recipient of the award received a gold replica stamp at an awards lunch on Australia Day.

47,830 of these PNC's were released at issue price of $7.90. As with many military themed issues this PNC has done well currently cataloguing at $135 (March 2011). It is the only way to get a 2000 dated The Last Anzacs one dollar and the only issue without any mintmark.

2009 saw 200 years of the Australian postal service and a one dollar coin was released by the Royal Australian Mint. This uncirculated coin can only be found in a 2 coin set and the PNC seen here. Further details about the coin included in this PNC can be found in the entry "Australian Dollar Coins 2009 Bicentenary of Australia Post Dollar".

32,300 of these PNC's were issued by Australia Post with 300 overprinted with gold lettering sold at the Melbourne Stamp Show in 2009 (seen above). The Melbourne Show overprint is a limited issue with each PNC numbered. There is a growing trend for third parties to overprint, stamp, add postmarks or similar to officially produced items to add value or commemorate a particular occasion, in this case the stamp show.

The PNC features the 55c stamp also released to commemorate the bicentenary and is postmarked 26 June 2009. Released for $14.95 these PNC's are readily available on the secondary market for this price or even less.

We've just created a Great Britain Silver Coin Bullion Calculator which is free to use and uses the latest silver prices to determine the silver bullion value of British coins. Great Britain issued sterling silver coins until 1920 when it debased silver coinage to 50% (issuing both 92.5% and 50% silver coins in 1920). 50% silver remained the standard until 1947 when silver was removed completely from the circulating coinage. Maundy coins which had dropped to 50% silver in 1921 were issued again with 92.5% silver in 1947 and continue to do so until today. One must not forget the British Trade Dollars which were minted for asian markets, these crown sized coins contain about 3/4 of an ounce of silver and can often be found at a small premium to their silver value. Be careful when considering the silver value of British threepence of the late 1930's and 1940's because both silver and nickel-brass coins were issued in this period. The yellow colour of the nickel brass coins should make it obvious that they contain no silver.

Remember that the calculator only tells you the bullion value of coins and that the collector value of a coin can exceed that of the pure bullion value.