The Royal Australian Mint, Deakin ACT

The Royal Australian Mint, the only supplier of Australia's circulating currency recently released their annual report for the financial year 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011. At 129 pages it's yawn inducing material so I've gathered the important information that will be of interest to collectors.

In the 2010/11 financial year the RAM produced 250,200,000 pieces of Australian circulating coinage. It also produced currency for the Cook Islands and Fiji. No longer weighed down by the global financial crisis the Mint's revenue grew 6% over the previous year and recorded the largest annual sales since 2006. The Mints' premises in Deakin saw a total of 207,906 visitors.

The Mint has established a new International Business Development section whose objective is to explore overseas business opportunities using the Mints' spare capacity to increase output achieving greater return for the government. Foreign business volume is expected to increase from $2.5milllion to $10 million in the next financial year with a contract secured with the Samoan government to replace their current circulating currency with smaller and lighter coins with new designs.

A coin from the NCC on display at the First Floor, RAM, Deakin ACT

The Mint is the custodian of the National Coin Collection (NNC) which holds examples of the most important Australian decimal and pre-decimal coins. Each year the collection is independently valued by Mr Tony Byrne and is currently valued at $22.9million, an increase of 2% over the previous year. It hasn't seen a larger increase as the coin market is seen to have reached a plateau. Some of this collection can be seen in displays at the Mint in Deakin and most is locked safely away. The Mint has approved the purchase and implementation of a collection management database system, one proposed use of this system may also enable the public limited access to the collection via the internet.

Reverse Die for the 2010 Centenary of Australian Coinage Four Monarchs Dollar

The Toolroom of the Mint has delivered 3,052 coining dies for this financial year. This total comprises of 1,166 circulating dies, 1886 numismatic dies and 180 collar dies. The total number of dies has not significantly changed from previous years but there has been a reduced need for circulating dies and an increased number of collector coin dies produced. A separate department of the Mint, the Die Polishing Service, delivered 4,875 dies made up of 3,357 new dies and 1,518 refurbished dies. Projects planned for 2011/12 include new equipment for the protective coating of coins and medallions and new equipment to apply the colour printing to coins.

Notable themes for coin product manufactured by the Mint in the 2010/11 financial year included the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup, the 60th anniversary of National Service, the Royal Wedding and The Ashes Series of which the six stitcher 20c design (seen below) greatly tested the Mint's technical capabilities. William and Kate Royal Wedding products were produced targetting the broader population. The commemorative circulating 20c was released to serve as a souvenir of the event and to remind non-collectors about the hobby of coin collecting. The Mint also produced an order of 250,000 tokens commissioned by a Victorian Newspaper for the Royal event.

Products currencly in development for the 2012 calendar commemorate/celebrate events such as the 50th anniversary of the Australian Ballet, the 70th anniversary of the Bombing of Australia, the 100th Australian Open Men's Champion and the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen. 2012 will see a new online Mint eShop which will be housed internally and not externally as it is currently. The Mint is preparing for the retirement of a long term coin sculptor with succession planning a key activity in progress. This involves projects with local tertiary educational facilities and the outsourcing of coin designers and plaster carving.

Australian 2011 20c - The Ashes designed by Wojciech Pietranik

Read the full report at www.ramint.gov.au.

2011 Uncirculated The Presidents Cup $1

The Presidents Cup golf tournament tees off today at The Royal Melbourne Golf Course, the oldest golf club in Australia. It will host two teams captained by Greg Norman and Fred Couples. Norman leads the International team which includes players such as Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Ernie Els and Couples leads the US team which includes Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. These golfing greats are not paid for their participation instead this is a charitable event distributing more than $23 million to over 380 charities since the first President's Cup in 1994.

The Royal Australian Mint has produced 5 collectible legal tender coins to celebrate The President's Cup. One of the designs (seen above) is found on 3 of the 5 coins and features a golfer in his follow through after playing a shot with an iron. The clubhouse is in the background and The Presidents Cup logo and trophy adorn the design. The reverse features "The Presidents Cup -Australia 2011" and 1 Dollar which has golf ball type dimples. The design is not by any particular RAM designer but a collaborative effort. This coin is an aluminium bronze one dollar as seen in circulation but is not intended to circulate as legal tender, it has been produced as a collector product in a descriptive card. It weighs the same as a normal dollar coin at 9 grams and is 25mm in diameter with interrupted edge reeding.The obverse features the standard Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II and dated 2011.

This one dollar coin has been issued for $14.85, find the mintage in the 2011 mintages table. It has also been issued jointly with Australia Post in a PNC.

A fine silver proof coin of the same design was also issued weighing more because it's made of silver and not aluminium bronze, but still a 25mm one dollar coin.

Update: 7/12/11 Early indications are that the PNC can be picked up easily with the carded coin being tougher to find. It's probable that many of the carded coins went overseas with the Americans taking home the cup. A packaging problem saw the RAM recall the carded issue as one side edge of the cardboard had not been trimmed and the positioning of the authentic product sticker on the back prevented the cards from simply being cut down, they had to be replaced.

2011 Uncirculated The Presidents Cup $1 in Card of Issue

A tedious task but I have just completed updating the mintages in the tables for all the (25mm) dollar coins
issued by the Royal Australian Mint. This year the 2010-11 annual report involved additions to coins over 3 calendar years 2009, 2010 and the first mintages for 2011.

This means the information provided in the Australian Coin Collecting Blog is the most up to date source for this mintage information.

It's time again for all those on the Royal Australian Mint customer mailing list to be offered the opportunity to purchase a gold proof Kangaroo at Sunset coin. Due to its' overwhelming popularity this $25 legal tender coin is offered through a ballot system with only one opportunity per Mint customer to enter the draw. The 2012 coin, the 6th in the series, has had a sharp price increase, this year up $240 to an issue price of $650 (last years issue was $420). You'd think this was justified due to the increase in gold price over the past year but when you do the maths this increase only accounts for *$80 of value in the coin.

The price rise might make this years coin too expensive for some but with such a stunning and popular design it's a must-have for this collector. There are just 998 available to collectors, a mintage of 1,000 with 2 coins going into the Mint's own collection. To enter this ballot Mint customers must tear off the ballot form from the bottom of their order form (which arrived with the November Mint Issue), fill it in correctly making sure to tick the checkbox accepting the terms and conditions. In a separate envelope for each entry the address must include 'BALLOT' to be sure that your entry is opened in time for the closing date of Friday 25th November. You could always drop your ballot off at the Mint shop at the Mint premises if you happen to be visiting.

If you're name is drawn then you should be notified by phone in the following week or notice the charge on your credit card. Good luck everyone.

*Calculations based on Nov 2010 AUD gold price $1440, Oct 2010 AUD gold peaked at $1749, with the Kangaroo at Sunset coin made from .2oz this equates to $80 increase in bullion price.

The Kangaroo at Sunset design first sculpted by Wojciech Pietranik in 2007 before it was captured into the coin design.

Memorable designs by Wojciech Pietranik. Top: The Ashes 20c, Bottom: Burke and Wills $1. Not shown the now iconic Kangaroo at Sunset Design.

We've learnt from the Mint's annual report that a shuffling within the design ranks at the Royal Australian Mint is underway as a long term coin sculptor moves into retirement. It's been noted already by collectors new designs by different designers being released. Newer coins aren't being attributed to particular sculptors but have been given a general "Royal Australian Mint Designers" attribution. We're not always seeing the designers initials as we have seen on a lot of previous coin designs.

One can only guess that either Vladimir Gottwald or Wojciech Pietranik have decided to hang up their coin engraving hat to relax and enjoy the sunsets. The RAM has begun succession planning which involves outsourcing of coin designs, plaster carving and joint coin design with local tertiary educational facilities to fill the gap left by the retiring sculptor.

It saddens me to hear of this retirement and view the newer coin releases which focus on graphic design and pretty pad printed coloured designs which could mean the loss of the 3 dimensional coin concept. Coin design to me is about depth in design and features and intricacies not just a pretty picture stuck to one side of a coin. Let's hope with new technologies in graphic design and printing techniques that we don't lose sight of the art and sculpture that can make a coin design. Both senior designers Wojciech and Vladimir have showed us this over the years, their sculptural talents are sure to be missed.

Memorable designs by Vladimir Gottwald. Top: The 2000 Royal Visit 50c, Gottwald designed both the Reverse and Obverse, Bottom: Fred Hollows $1

If you live near Canberra and have nothing else planned for tomorrow take your family along to the first ever Mint field day being held Saturday the 5th November.

Celebrating the official release of the coloured Emergency Services OOO 50c -50 years of the triple zero emergency call service the Mint has enlisted all manner of emergency vehicles including the Snowy Hydro Southcare helicopter which you can see between 10am and 2pm tomorrow. The first 300 visitors will receive a Mint showbag which I'm sure will include Mint mints, pencils, pamphlets and maybe even a voucher. Hang around for the sausage sizzle and face painting it's sure to be a fun family oriented event.

This weekend is also the opening of the One in a Million error coin exhibition we saw recently in Melbourne at the Mint premises in Deakin.

The Royal Australian Mint has just made available their annual report for the last financial year 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011. This means that we can all get a clearer picture of what coins were actually produced, sold and released into circulation, their designs and actual numbers. We gain from this insight into low mintages and coins that we didn't even know about!

Without going into too much detail as it's a long report, at first glance it doesn't look too out of the ordinary. Remember for a complete mintage you have to take production over 2 financial year reports (or more) to get accurate numbers. This means some of the production numbers will add to existing numbers and some will only be part of the total mintage. Over the coming week or so I will be updating the mintages in the Complete One Dollar Master Lists.

Aside from mintages the report gives us a roundup of general happenings at the Mint, read the full report.

Some standout mintage points to note are:

• Circulating $1 and $2 coins were minted for the Cook Islands.
• 7,000 standard 10c coins dated 2008 were minted.


• no more Frilled Neck Lizard $1's in the coloured Land Series have been minted.


• Additional mintages of the $5 State Series proof silver coins.


• NCLT for Fiji has been minted.


• Royal Wedding 20c issued in the coin swap has a separate entry.


• The 400 2010 Decimal Heritage Sets appears to be missing.
  (note 11/11/11 the RAM have confirmed that there were in fact 400 sets minted and they were not listed on the report, there will be an amendment in next years report.)