Next Tuesday 6th September for 3 days only the Royal Australian Mint are showcasing an exhibition in Melbourne's Federation Square. The exhibition coincides with the RAM's launch of it's 2012 products and features rare and spectacular errors and mis-strikes from their own National Coin Collection. The exhibition is titled 'One in a million -Unexpected Treasures from the Royal Australian Mint' and is surely a not-to-be-missed event for the studious error collector.

Check out some of the coins in the Mint's collection in our previous articles Error Coins at the RAM part 1 and Error Coins at the RAM part 2 or our read up on how they occur in the entries within the Master Error Index.

RSVP for the launch proceedings on Tuesday evening is essential, see the RAM website for more details.

1943 Penny with Die Break

Lots of damage can be done to a coin die during the process of striking many hundreds of thousands or millions of coins and this damage can be seen on the struck coin! Dies can crack, chip or break and pieces of the die can fall off and may go unnoticed until quality control picks up a problem and the die is replaced. Of course it may also be press techicians mishandling the die and causing damage to it.

The coin shown above is a die break where a large piece of the edge of the die has broken away and left a void which fills with metal during the strike. Notice the extreme weakness on the reverse behind the die break where there was no metal left to fill the design. The die break is an expansion of a rim cud. Die cracks are also commonly seen on pre-decimal coins which is the warning sign that a die is about to fail. The die producing these sorts of errors would quickly be replaced.

1987 2c Struck Through oil

The above coin (of which there are 2 -consecutive pair so to speak!) was taken from a 1987 mint roll and shows lovely bright red cartwheel lustre. It clearly shows an error of some sort on the date, but what is it? You could guess that it was struck over a faulty planchet but it has in fact been struck with excess grease or oil on the die. This has left a fuzzy date (compare this with clarity in the rest of the legends) and an area surrounding the date with an indentation made from this grease material left on the surface of the die. This impression would have been left on the obverse of all the coins struck by this die at this time until the grease wore, fell or was wiped away. It's interesting that 2 coins in a single mint roll were found with exactly the same effect.

We call this type of error a strike through or an oil-filled die. A strike-thru could be made from any sort of material invading the space between the die and the planchet at striking. It could be cotton, wire, oil, extra metal or any foreign object contaminating the strike.

1943 Penny with Hole

An impurity in the metal mix used to make the coin planchets can have a spectacular result when this lamination flaw makes it through quality control and the struck coin lands in your pocket. The coin seen above has a hole right through the middle of the planchet! This has been caused by a gas bubble, dirt contamination, foreign material or poorly mixed element in the alloy mix when the sheet of metal was rolled before the planchet was cut and the coin struck.

These sorts of alloy defects can have very differing appearances on a coin as you can see in our previous entries Planchet Flaw Coin Errors and Peel or Lamination Flaw Coin Errors. This example though I think is pretty cool!

Slab Before Polishing

Above you can see a pretty little South African farthing from 1931. Well, actually you can't see it, what you can see is a brown coin behind some very scratched plastic. Scratched or scuffed slabs are a typical problem, especially with older slabs or those that have not been cared for properly. One of the huge advantages of slabs is that this damage is done to the plastic that encases the coin rather than the coin itself. One of the dis-advantages with scratched slabs is that taking images of the coins within is problematic at best, and as seen above the coin is largely obscured.

We'd read about other coin collectors having using normal car cut and polish compound on both PCGS and NGC slabs given that the technique used to polish the plastic is correct. So, to test this out for ourselves we went down to our local car parts shop and bought some Polyglaze Cut and Polish. We applied small amounts of polish to a soft cloth and worked it onto the surface of the above slab. We made sure to polish up and down rather than from side to side or in circles. The reasoning behind this was that we light all our coins from the top when imaging and we tried to align our polishing lines in the same direction. This would ensure that the lines would not show up in the images due to light reflections.

Each side was polished for several minutes until (to our eyes at least) the worst of the slab scratches were removed. You can see the results below.

Slab After Polishing

We're sure that you'll agree that the results are pretty impressive. So, don't go out and drop a lot of cash on expensive specialised slab polish, just head down to your local car parts shop and get what you need to remove the scratches and scuffs from your slabbed coins!

Coin Blanks

There are several terms for an unstruck coin. A blank, planchet or flan all of which are discs of metal that are cut from sheets in preparation to become a coin. Australian blanks for circulation coins struck by the Royal Australian Mint are supplied by the Poongsan company in South Korea. The Mint didn't always buy in the blanks though, they used to roll and cut planchets themselves.

Above you can see two different types of coin blanks. The bottom row are simply the discs cut from the sheet of coin metal and the top row are blank planchets which have been edge milled or rimmed in preparation for their trip through the coin press.

A simple coin blank can be picked up cheaply but there's something special to look out for. If that blank has passed through the coin press -and you can prove it, then it will be much more valuable! If there's even a hint of the coin design which might be a faint impression as seen on a die adjustment strike coin error or the impression left when the coin die just caught the edge of the blank then your "blank" could be worth 10 or 100 times more than it will as a blank. I say "blank" because it's now not a simple blank it's an error coin!

It's important to weigh your blank to help determine what the planchet was intended for. A coin blank I purchased as an Australian $1 unstruck planchet (shown above top second from right) appears to be aluminium bronze but it's weight isn't quite what it should be. It's actually 9.3g and not 9g as a dollar should. I can only guess then that it might actually be a blank for a Danish 20 kroner! Some blanks might weigh what they should but it's the composition that would determine what the coin should have been. An 11.31g round planchet has a number of possibilities, a pre-decimal florin (but is it pre 1946 sterling silver or post 1946 50% silver) or maybe a cupro-nickel decimal 20c?

Also worth discussing is that a coin blank is not technically an error coin. It simply hasn't finished it's process of becoming a coin.

1919m sixpence with interesting obverse PMD

Sadly it seems King George V has cycled in a comedic 166th place in the recent 2011 Tour de France cycling race. That's second last btw.

Seen above is a 1919m sixpence with very interesting post mint damage, this coin certainly didn't leave the mint this way! More commonly coins are artistically altered and called "love tokens" as pieces to be carried and treasured by loved ones. We're not sure who once treasured this little beauty but given Cadel Evans' recent win we thought fitting to post it up for a bit of coin humour.

2006 Mint Set with ANDA Show Logo

The 2006 eight coin uncirculated set celebrated 40 years of decimal currency. It was "C" Day February 14th 1966 when Australia converted from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents. Australian's have embraced the Stuart Devlin designs and they have stood the test of time as iconic images that we all recognise.

This year set of 2006 Australian coins include examples of the 1c and 2c which were removed from circulation in 1991. It includes 2006 dated $2, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c and 5c all which can be found in circulation. The 50c included in this set is the standard dodecagonal shape, not to be confused with the 2006 proof set which includes the 50c in it's original form as a round 80% silver coin. They do however all feature the 2006 obverse portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley and not the Arnold Machin obverse as the 1c and 2c were first issued with in 1966.

All 8 coins are housed in a plastic bubble pack inside a descriptive card with an outer cardboard sleeve. 84,407 of these sets were issued for $23.50 each. There are 2 variations of this set:

1. Berlin World Money Fair issue of which 1,500 of these sets were issued with the World Money Fair logo printed on the outer sleeve. This is not simply a sticker as we have seen with other issues, it is printed with the packaging. Issue price $25.

2. Canberra ANDA show overprint of which 1,500 sets were issued with the ANDA Show logo printed on the outer sleeve. This is not simply a sticker as we have seen with other issues, it is printed with the packaging. Issue price $25. If I recall back to 2006 correctly this overprinted set should have been issued at all ANDA shows in 2006 with a mintage of 6,000 but there was a problem and only 1,500 were issued at the Canberra Fair, the first ANDA show for the year in February 2006. Email us at the Australian Coin Collecting Blog if you can clarify this.

For other Mint Set issues see the master list The Australian Mint Set - Royal Australian Mint Uncirculated Year Set Issues.

2012 will be the Chinese Year of the Dragon and what a year it will be with a 1kg .999 gold coin, legal tender of $3,000 to be issued by the Royal Australian Mint!!

Of course if you can't afford that one there will be a $500 denomination gold 5oz coin or a $100 denomination 1oz gold coin or if that's still stretching the budget then a $1 1oz pad printed silver coin will have to do.

Treasury has approved a Royal Australian Mint design for a new $5 coin to remember our fallen diggers on Remembrance Day 11 November 2011. A coloured design of a red poppy is to be pad printed onto an aluminium, zinc and bronze planchet. The frosted uncirculated finish will appear on a scalloped hendecagonal shaped planchet. Not sure what that is? It's a bit of a mouthful but it's an 11 sided polygon with scalloped edges, in effect, a poppy shape!! A fitting 11 sided shape for a coin to remember 11-11-11.

The Department of Treasury have given collectors a sneak peak into the upcoming releases from the Royal Australian Mint. A plethora of new releases are potentially on the cards and collectors will be happy with this newest listing of issues to come. A warning though to collectors, these coin designs have been approved but it is yet to be seen if their release will eventuate.

For one dollar collectors we'll see the next instalment in the Inspiration Australians Series, a 2012 dated aluminium bronze coin designed by Wojciech Pietranik. Celebrating scientific research in the antarctic a depiction of Sir Douglas Mawson will feature on this new coin.

A 2012 one dollar is to depict Dot and the Kangaroo by famous children's author Ethel C Pedley. I'll make an assumption here and guess that this is for the new design for the baby year sets issued by the RAM as it is known that 2011 is the last year for the Blinky Bill series.

2012 will be "The Year of the Farmer" with a number of releases carrying this theme. A Year of the Farmer $1, another $1 and a 20c featuring fields of gold Australian Wheat. The mintmark coin for 2012 is also set to pay tribute to George Kruger Gray's wheat sheaf design last seen on the Australian pre-decimal threepence.

Continuing with the very popular coloured one dollar series we'll see a number of new pad-printed coins. An elephant, gorilla, corroboree frog, tiger, orangutan, and tree kangaroo are the next 6 designs for release in 2012.

Anyone for golf? In November 2011 the Royal Melbourne Golf Club will host The President's Cup team golf competition. We'll see a number of releases from an aluminium bronze $1 to a selectively gold plated release and a $25 gold proof design celebrating this charitable event to be held in Australia for the first time since 1988.

2012 is the DIamond Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II, 60 years since HM's coronation. An acacia plant and crown design by Michael Meszaros will feature on silver and gold proof 50c coins and a differing design of fireworks will be depicted on a cupro-nickel and fine silver proof 50c.

2012 will be the Year of the Dragon with a number of releases with this theme.

1988 Mint Set

The 1988 mint set produced by the Royal Australian Mint celebrated 200 years since the First Fleet arrived in Australia and saw the introduction of the $2 coin replacing the $2 note.

This eight coin set features the standard 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c reverse designs by Stuart Devlin. The new two dollar coin reverse is by the Royal Australian Mint's chief engraver Horst Hahne. The set features a commemorative 50c by Michael Tracey and Bicentenary $1 design by Stuart Devlin.
The obverse effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on all 1988 dated coins is by Raphael Maklouf.

This year set includes all circulation coins issued in 1988. The mintset might be the only way to obtain a 20c as it is widely thought of by collectors that although 174,000 coins were minted for circulation that all or almost all of these coins were melted down and not released into circulation.

290,940 of this mint set were issued for $12 each. 10,000 1988 mint sets were issued at $13 each with a sticker indicating their purchase at a coin fair. For other Mint Set issues see the master list The Australian Mint Set - Royal Australian Mint Uncirculated Year Set Issues.

1988 Mint Set

1987 Mint Set

The 1987 mint set is an uncirculated set of Australian coins for 1987. It features all standard reverse designs by Stuart Devlin from the 1c up to the $1 coin. The 2c, 10c, 20c, 50c and one dollar are all unique to this set and were not issued into circulation -it was only the 1c that was issued into circulation in 1987.

The obverse of all the coins feature the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Raphael Maklouf. They are housed in a plastic insert glued into a folded card with an outer slipcover.

The card talks about the earliest Australian coins traded from when the first settlers arrived in Australia in 1788. Carried into New South Wales with the First Fleet were British sixpence, shillings and the spade guinea. Lack of coinage led to the barter of items such as rum and the trade of other currencies such as Portugese johannas, Indian rupees and Spanish dollars. This led to Governer Macquarie's intention of punching out the centre of a spanish dollar founding the iconic holey dollar and dump which are exceptionally collectable rarities in today's market.

200,000 of this mint set were issued for $9.70 each. For other Mint Set issues see the master list The Australian Mint Set - Royal Australian Mint Uncirculated Year Set Issues.

1987 Mint Set

A Fake Foy Bag

Well it was bound to happen but it still doesn't make us happy that it has, fake Foy Bags have started appearing on Ebay and are being promoted on coin forums around the internet. Fake Centennial Florins have been around for a while but these fake bags are the first that we are aware of. Even more concerning is that the bag is a 'replica' of a Perth Foy Bag, the scarcer and more valuable of the two varieties of bag.

The fake bag is very easy to pick and was probably made by scanning a real bag and overprinting a commercial paper envelope with a colour laser printer or similar. Note that the text on the envelope "of which a limited issue was" is partially missing, probably due to the original bag having a fold at this point and the text being worn off. It's impossible to tell anything about the size of the envelope but certainly the location of the text on the envelope is completely different to that on the real bag too. This suggests that the manufacturer has probably just used a commercial off the shelf blank envelope of the wrong size rather than going to the trouble of getting envelopes of the right size made.

The most concerning aspect of these fakes are that Foy and Gibson are no longer in existence to protect their copyright on such fake items so we imagine the manufacturer can make them with relative impunity. Another worrying aspect is that the fakes are not marked as such. Our concerns would be allayed if "COPY" or "REPLICA" was printed somewhere on the bag to make it clear it was not the real deal. The final concern is that while the manufacturer of these fakes might have (reasonably) good intentions when making these bags it's just a matter of time before someone with baser instincts applies some artificial wear to one of these fakes and tries to pass it off as the real deal. A troubling situation for any upstanding Australian coin collector.

Real Melbourne and Perth Foy Bags

1984 Mint Set front and back cover

The 1984 mint set is an uncirculated year set of circulating currency for 1984. It was produced before the release of the one dollar coin so this is not included in the set. 1984 was the first year of the "bubble pack" or "blister pack" sets where the coins are all sealed securely in HDPE moulding and are well protected with a cardboard folder and outer sleeve.

It features all standard issue coins, the coat of arms dodecagonal 50c, platypus 20c, lyrebird 10c, echidna 5c, frilled lizard 2c and feather-tailed glider 1c all designed by Stuart Devlin and are all of standard circulation size, weight and composition. The obverse of all the coins feature the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin. This was the last year of this effigy before it was changed to the Raphael Maklouf design.

The packaging examines the animals on the coins in delightful detail explaining the frill-necked lizard's menacing frill, the skill of the swimming platypus and the dancing lyrebird with it's magnificent tail. The back of the folder explains the history of the Royal Australian Mint.

These sets were issued for $3.20 with some sets issued with a yellow plastic holding the coins. The yellowed sets catalogue at just over half the value of the clear sets but can all be picked up for well under todays catalogue value of $60 clear and $35 yellow (2011). Mintage 150,014.

1984 Mint Set inside

1985 Mint Set

The 1985 mint set was issued by the Royal Australian Mint and features an uncirculated set of Australian coinage for that year. It is the first mint set to feature the mob of roos one dollar coin first struck in 1984. It is also the first year of a new portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. The Raphael Maklouf designed effigy features on the obverse of all the coins and depicts QEII wearing the Diamond Diadem (small crown) with 1,333 diamonds, part of the British Crown Jewels. The packaging of this mint set explains the reverse designs on all the coins, all the standard designs by scultpor and Jeweller to the Queen Stuart Devlin.

Coins included in this set are the standard mob of roos $1, coat of arms dodecagonal 50c, platypus 20c, lyrebird 10c, echidna 5c, frilled lizard 2c and feather-tailed glider 1c. They are all standard circulation size, weight and composition. Interestingly the 5c was not issued into circulation in 1985 so a mint set might be the only way to obtain one.

Packaged in a folded card with the coins sealed securely in HDPE moulding they are well protected with an outer cardboard sleeve. This type of packaging is often called bubblepack or blister packaging. Originally these sets were issued for $4.20 and catalogue (2011) at $45 they can be picked up for well under cv. Mintage of 170,000. There was a number of sets issued with a yellowed plastic housing the coins. These were issued for $3.20 and have a much lower cv of $25 (2011). This type of packaging was first used in the 1985 and 1984 mint sets and the yellowed plastic considered a teething problem with the new materials.

For other Mint Set issues see the master list The Australian Mint Set - Royal Australian Mint Uncirculated Year Set Issues.

1985 Mint Set

1986 Mint Set

The 1986 mint set was issued by the Royal Australian Mint and features uncirculated issues of 1986 Australian coinage. The theme for this set is the commemoration of the International Year of Peace and the 20th anniversary of decimal coinage. There was no mob or roos one dollar coin minted in 1986, instead a commemorative one dollar (Australia's first) was released featuring the symbol for IYP, the peace dove, hands and a wreath engraved by Horst Hahne. This coin is included in this set. This mint set includes the standard coat of arms dodecagonal 50c, platypus 20c, lyrebird 10c, echidna 5c, frilled lizard 2c and feather-tailed glider 1c all designed by Stuart Devlin and are of standard circulation size, weight and composition. The obverse of all of the coins included in this set is the Raphael Maklouf portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Interestingly all of the coins included in this set except the $1 were not actually issued into circulation so picking up a mint set might be the only way to get these coins.

The packaging of this mint set takes us through the process of producing the Peace $1 from a drawing to a plaster model, rubber mould and resin replica before the creation of a master die. From this master die, hundreds of working dies were produced and chromium plated to increase their wear resistance. The working dies then produce these circulation coins. The packaging also takes us through the history of decimal currency. From it's adoption in 1966 (20 years prior to the release of this set) and the phasing out of the old shillings and pence system. It talks of the 1966 round 50c, the last time Australia will see precious metal in a circulating coin and the introduction of the one dollar coin in 1984 and a new effigy of Queen Elizabeth II in 1985.

Packaged in a folded card with the coins sealed securely in HDPE moulding they are well protected with an outer cardboard sleeve. Originally these were issued for $4.50 and catalogue (2011) at $26 they can be picked up for well under cv. Mintage of 180,000.

Error sets have emerged with the set including a 10c coin dated 1985 (instead of 1986). Be careful of tampered packaging if paying a premium for one of these error sets.

For other Mint Set issues see the master list The Australian Mint Set - Royal Australian Mint Uncirculated Year Set Issues

1986 Mint Set