We thought it would be useful to revisit the values of Australian 50 cent coins that you might find in your change. The values below are drawn from the 2012 edition of the Pocket Guide to Australian Coins and Banknotes written by Greg McDonald. Remember these prices are for true uncirculated coins and they are what you can expect to PAY for a coin rather than what you can sell it for. If you’re selling these coins you’ll be lucky to get half the catalogue value and likely much less.
- 1970 Captain Cook Bicentenary, mintage: 16,548,100, $7.00
- 1977 Silver Jubilee, mintage: 25,067,000, $4.00
- 1981 Royal Wedding, mintage: 20,000,000, $6.00
- 1982 Commonwealth Games, mintage: 23,287,000, $4.00
- 1988 First Fleet Bicentenary, mintage: 8,990,800, $15.00
- 1991 Decimal Anniversary, mintage: 4,704,400, $10.00
- 1994 Year of the Family (narrow date), mintage: 20,830,800, $12.00
- 1994 Year of the Family (wide date), mintage: 20,830,800, $12.00
- 1995 Weary Dunlop, mintage: 15,869,200, $7.00
- 1998 Bass and Flinders, mintage: 22,426,000, $7.00
- 2000 Year 2000 Millennium, mintage: 16,630,000, $7.00
Now if you compare the catalogue values of these coins in 2012 with those in the table we wrote in 2009 you will note that not one of these coins has changed in catalogue value in 3 years. Not exactly the stuff investment dreams are made of.
Because it will be interesting to look back on this article in a few years time we thought we’d take a look at the catalogue values of some of the commemorative 50c coins we didn’t consider last time. As above these values are for true uncirculated coins only.
- 2001 Centenary of Federation, mintage: 43,149,600, $5.00
- 2001 Centenary of Federation NSW, mintage: 3,042,000, $6.00
- 2001 Centenary of Federation ACT, mintage: 2,000,000, $6.00
- 2001 Centenary of Federation QLD, mintage: 2,320,000, $6.00
- 2001 Centenary of Federation VIC, mintage: 2,000,000, $6.00
- 2001 Centenary of Federation Norfolk Island, mintage: 2,000,000, $6.00
- 2001 Centenary of Federation NT, mintage: 2,000,000, $6.00
- 2001 Centenary of Federation WA, mintage: 2,400,000, $6.00
- 2001 Centenary of Federation SA, mintage: 2,400,000, $6.00
- 2001 Centenary of Federation TAS, mintage: 2,106,006, $6.00
- 2002 Year of the Outback, mintage: 11,507,000, $6.00
- 2003 Australia’s Volunteers, mintage: 13,927,000, $4.00
- 2004 Student Design, mintage: 10,200,000, $3.00
- 2005 60th Anniversary of WW2, mintage: 20,719,000, $3.00
If you’re wondering why we’ve got this far and haven’t mentioned the 1966 Round 50c Coin you should remember that it trades mainly as silver bullion rather than as a collectable coin. Back in 2009 when we wrote the original 50 cent coin value article silver was trading at about $19.50 an ounce making a round 50c worth about $6.50. Today that same round 50 cent contains $9.60 worth of silver. Seems like an excellent return? Well it is, but a word of caution, remember that in 1980 at the height of the Hunt Brothers silver run a round 50c contained $15 worth of silver. So if you’d held onto them for the intervening 32 years you’d have made a 50% loss, which is even worse if you consider 32 years of inflation!
