Queen Elizabeth II celebrates in 2012 sixty years since her accession to the throne in 1952. We've celebrated her silver jubilee in 1977 with a circulation 50c release and again for HM's Golden Jubilee in 2003 with a special aluminium bronze commemorative 50c and now this stunning design by our favourite Stuart Devlin graces another Aussie legal tender coin. The reverse design features St Edwards Crown worn by her majesty during her coronation ceremony. Added is also diamonds and fireworks fitting for such a milestone.

This design is issued by the Royal Australian Mint in uncirculated copper-nickel (seen above) and silver proof. The obverse is the mature portrait of QEII by Ian Rank-Broadley. The uncirculated coin minted as NCLT (not for circulation) in a collector card is issued at $9.

The Museum of Australian Currency Notes is located within the Reserve Bank of Australia at Martin Place in Sydney. It is a fascinating display of the history of Australia's currency notes with some stunning examples of rare notes, note designs and banking ephemera which the public can view free of charge.

The museum has an area dedicated to the changeover from pre-decimal to decimal currency in 1966. In 1963 the Australian dollar was proposed to be called the "Royal" before public opinion decided on the dollar as the new Australian unit of currency. Other proposed units were the Roo, Digger, Kwid or Dinkum. Sketches for notes in the "Royal" unit were made and these are displayed at the museum.

Dollar Bill, the cartoon character born for the changeover explained decimal currency to the general public and businesses and he adorns original posters and brochures within the displays at the museum. The Reserve Bank of Australia Museum is well worth a visit if you're travelling through Sydney.

We've just finished making some changes to our Junk Silver Coin Calculators. These calculators can be used to determine the silver bullion content and value of coins from a number of different countries. We've been working on some improvements to these calculators over the last day or so and they are now complete. The junk silver coin calculators now:

• Display the date and time of the last bullion and value update for the calculator.
• Allow you to export the calculator values directly to a CSV file which can then be opened in a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel.
• Allow you to generate a PDF file showing the calculator values which can then be printed and stored with your silver bullion.

Silver coins are typically traded for their bullion precious metal content often higher than their legal tender value. World junk silver coins can be worth more as silver bullion or for their melt value than as collector coin value. Coins of different years and denoinations of many contries are traded by collectors of bullion and silver. A hobby of coin collectors can be to gather junk bullion coins and wait until the market peaks to cash in on the stronger silver price or a fluctuating currency exchange rate.

Coins of different years, denominations and country vary greatly in fineness and weight so any easy method for actual silver weight conversion is needed. The Australian Coin Collecting Blog has proudly produced a number of these bullion calculators to easily determine and add up the silver content and value of your silver hoard. Easily add new coins, numbers of coins or change the currency each is displayed in. Melt values are determined from the latest spot price directly from Kitco.

We've seen auction houses use these calculators to help buyers determine the value of bulk lots for sale. Add up the value of your Australian pre-decimal junk silver box, print the page and you have a list of today's value of your silver stash. There is a different calculator for each country and even a gold calculator. We've also produced junk scrap calculators for items that can be simply weighed, enter the fineness and, as if by magic, the value of your junk silver is displayed. This may be a silver spoon, broken silver chain or Grandma's silver goblet!

Australian Silver Coin Value Calculator

United States Silver Coin Value Calculator

Great Britain Silver Coin Value Calculator

Canadian Silver Coin Value Calculator

Mexico Silver Coin Value Calculator

Switzerland Silver Coin Value Calculator

Austrian Silver Coin Value Calculator

Panama Silver Coin Value Calculator

New Zealand Silver Coin Value Calculator

World Gold Coin Value Calculator

Scrap Gold Value Calculator

Scrap Silver Value Calculator

We've just created an Austrian Silver Coin Bullion Calculator (not to be confused with the Australian Silver Coin Calculator) which is free to use and uses the latest silver prices to determine the silver bullion value of Austrian silver coins. Austria issued a lot of silver coins in various silver fineness during the 20th century and it can be a difficult task to work out exactly how much silver happens to be in each different coin.

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 silver value. Find the calculator in the Gold and Silver Coin Calculators links to the right of this entry.

The Royal Australian Mints' Animals of the Zoo coloured one dollar series coincides with the 150th anniversary of the Melbourne Zoo, the oldest Australian zoo. The coin depicted above is the second release in the series, the reverse featuring the asian elephant. The Melbourne Zoo is home to seven of these endangered species elephants including Mali born in 2010. She was the first asian elephant calf born at the zoo thanks to artificial insemination.

One of six coins issued in 2012 this Melbourne Zoo series follows on from the very popular Ocean, Land and Air series released by the Mint in previous years. The 25mm dollar coins have a frosted uncirculated finish, this one with a sculpted asian elephant design which is then overlaid with colour in the pad-printing process. Bamboo also features in the design by the RAM's Aaron Baggio. This 2012 dated one dollar weighs 9 grams and is minted on an aluminium bronze burnished blank planchet. The obverse features the standard Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

Issued in a capsule snapped into a collector card for $15, for up to date mintage figures see the 2012 One Dollar Issues and Mintages Table.

The coloured Air series of Australian one dollar coins were issued in 2011. These complement previous issues with Ocean and Land themes featuring pad printed coloured animals on these legal tender coins. Issued in a frosted uncirculated finish these coins certainly appeal to young collectors and bird lovers.

Mintages can be found in the 2011 mintages table

Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the Melbourne Zoo the latest in the pad-printed coloured dollars is this, the Western Lowland Gorilla coin. The Melbourne Zoo is home to six of these endangered species Gorillas originally from the west part of Africa.

This coin is one of six coins to be issued as part of the Animals of the Zoo coloured series following on from the very popular Ocean, Land and Air series in previous years. With a frosted uncirculated finish the coin has a sculpted gorilla design which is then overlaid with colour in the pad-printing process. The reverse design is by RAM designer Aaron Baggio but does not feature his initials in the design. This 2012 dated one dollar is issued by the Royal Australian Mint and has the same specifications as a circulation $1. It has however been minted for the collector market appealing to the younger collector and animal lovers.

It is the same size as a standard dollar at 25mm in diameter and weighs 9 grams. It's struck on a specially prepared aluminium bronze burnished blank planchet. The coin is Australian legal tender for one dollar. The obverse features the standard Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

Issued in a capsule snapped into a collector card for $15, for up to date mintage figures see the 2012 One Dollar Issues and Mintages Table.

Visitors to the *Royal Australian Mint between the 2nd and 10th March had the opportunity to strike an extra special counterstamp onto the mintmark dollar for 2012. The wheat sheaf dollar coin already with a C mintmark was placed into the Mint's mobile coin press and stamped with a Canberra Bluebell counterstamp. The bluebell is the floral emblem of the ACT. This special issue is part of "ENLIGHTEN 2012" Canberra's autumn festival to see Canberra in a whole new light which corresponds with tours of the factory floor where ticketholders were able to get up close and personal behind the scenes of many aspects of the minting process at the RAM.

The wheat sheaf design is the mintmark dollar for 2012, the reissue of George Kruger Gray's design seen on the Australian threepence. The obverse of this coin features the effigy of QEII by Ian Rank-Broadley. It's the standard sized one dollar at 25mm in diameter weighing 9 grams struck in aluminium bronze.

This issue has a capped mintage of 15,000 coins but you'll find the exact mintage on the 2012 One Dollar Issues and Mintages Table.

*There is also a dealer allocation of these coins.

An early morning Qantas flight took me to a drizzly cold Canberra morning for an event I just couldn't miss. The Royal Australian Mint was joining the Enlighten festivities with a special counterstamp one dollar and behind the scenes factory floor tours for those lucky enough to secure tickets. First stop was a visit to the Canberra Mint where the mobile coin press was set up to strike a Canberra Bluebell Counterstamp onto a C mintmark wheat sheaf $1. These special Enlighten event coins have a mintage capped at 15,000. The queue...well....wasn't and I was able to secure 30 coins in a matter of minutes at 10 coins per lineup. The friendly staff were all smiles as we discussed the coin and the tours later that day.

Just after 6pm I arrived for the evening tour to start at 6:30. A table labelled "designers" greeted me and a chat with new RAM designer Aaron Baggio saw me ushered over to the start of the tour before I knew it. Mint tour visitors had to sign a legal document for security reasons and we were given visitor passes, a pair of earplugs and a golden mob of roos dollar sticker. We were given the opportunity to place handbags and such in a locker as carrying coins into the secure area was not allowed. This was stressed to us on a number of occasions.

An eager team of about 10 visitors with a Mint tour guide and a security officer headed through 2 security doors and into the Mint's back corridors. We passed by 2 huge vault doors which house the National Coin Collection, one door which was open allowed us to look through a barred door to huge cabinets and shelves displaying our treasured collection. It was reminded to us that it is us, the Australian public that own this treasured collection.

Our first stop was toolroom area where all the parts for the coin presses are made. Part of the diemaking and coin press process was explained to us and we touched and held items such as feeder fingers and coin collars. Many different rooms make up the Mint factory and we went from room to room fascinated by what we were seeing. We saw rods of metal that dies are cut from and saw the dies shaped before the design is pressed into it. Then a technician pressed a 5c reverse die in front of our eyes!! Photos were only permitted in a couple of locations which was disapointing because I wanted to bring this experience to every one of our readers.

We donned eye and ear protection and entered the production area where the automated guided vehicles move barrels of blanks in the wee hours of the morning getting ready for the days production. Loud was an understatement as the machines churned out new 20c pieces in front of our eyes and they travelled up a conveyor machine to be bagged up. Sadly Titan the robot was unwell so they couldn't show us his mightly arm lifting the barrel of blanks into the hoppers. These feed the conveyors which lay out the blanks in preparation to feed the press.

Another room showed us the pickling and burnishing process of NCLT blank preparation. Only the proof blanks are pickled and the uncirculated blanks burnished, different processes of acid surface preparation. We also watched the technician as he ran dollar blanks through the rimming machine. Passing a metal hardness tesing machine we were informed this machine was still in use and has been since the Mint opened in 1965.

The proof room was next as we donned our white coats as they need to keep this area as clean and dust free as possible. Here we saw 2013 standard coins being struck and the next in the coloured pad printed Melbourne Zoo series, a green type of frog. We were presented with samples of before and after the plating process of the 2012 selectively gold plated proof set 50c and the Australian Open $5.

The tour lasted around an hour and a half on an estmate of an hour and at times we were pushed along as the following groups were catching up. Obviously our group asked too many questions as were taking in as much as we were offered as was possible.

To conclude we had to pass security to make sure we hadn't pocketed any of the product. At one point during the tour there had been 50c blanks accidently strewn on the floor and dollar blanks on conveyor belts , newly struck $2, $1 and 20c and all manner of dies and machine parts any wrongdoer could have pocketed. Our personal effects ran through an x-ray machine, we went through a scanner similar to an airport security screen and our bodies and shoes were also checked. There were special coin disposal baggies for staff who may accidentally find stray or problem coins on their person as they exited after their shift. One of our group when asked again if they had any coins on them replied with...ahh..money in my wallet....yeah. This person was ushered to be checked more closely. Mint staff had questioned us many many times as this rule was of utmost importance but obviously went unheard for one visitor.

Overall I had an amazing time and would certainly do it all again given another opportunity.

Enlighten festivities on March 2nd 2012 in Canberra gave the opportunity for a behind the scenes tour into coin production at the Royal Australian Mint. Many different denominations were in various stages of production during the tour. You can see most of this process from the viewing area upstairs at the Mint, but here I was able to get up close and very personal with the entire process complete with earplugs and trendy glasses. Below shows a pictoral journey of blank planchet to legal tender circulation coin.

Blank planchets arrive directly from the Poongsan corporation in South Korea in brightly coloured 44 gallon drums.

Automated guided vehicles (AGV's) move the drums of blanks to the production floor where Titan the huge 3 metre tall six-axis robot tips the barrels contents of blanks into feeding hoppers.

Blanks chatter along the conveyor belt before being fed into the presses.

The press in action strikes coins at a rate of up to 650 coins per minute.

After exiting the press they are spat into a hopper and travel up another conveyor to be weighed.

Sometimes the new coins are bagged but most often they are put back into the barrels (moved again by Titan) to travel to the security companies for distribution.