Collecting the Australian dollar coin used to be a well loved pastime but in recent years the scale of collecting these has become such a chore that it’s no longer enjoyable -for this collector at least. Thirty years of the dollar coin has gone by and we thought we’d round up a bit of a summary about the beloved dollar issued by the Royal Australian Mint.
If you browse your change and keep commemorative dollar coins as you find them and keep an example of the standard design mob of roos each year it was issued into circulation you would find that equates to a collection of 35 coins (up until end 2015).
If you keep a more comprehensive collection of every 25 millimeter dollar coin including those NCLT or non-circulating legal tender coins with all their different reverses then you would have as many as 193 coins in your collection (accurate until end of 2015). And we’re not even talking about any other legal tender of one dollar that doesn’t fit into the 25 millimeter category issued by either the Royal Australian Mint or the Perth Mint (many of which are 40mm and are not spoken about here).
See the graph below showing how the number of one dollar reverses issued has increased over the years since the first coin in 1984.
Now our magic number of 193 dollar coin reverses doesn’t include added mintmarks, privymarks, counterstamps AND it doesn’t include different packaging types or the different metals these reverse designs have been issued in. For example the same reverse designs were issued with counterstamps at various portable press locations throughout the year, the same coin might have been issued in a card and a PNC and the same reverse design might have been struck in fine silver as another issue. If we were to add these onto the list the number would increase exponentially.
Just looking at the statistics for 2015 in our magical table we see there are 92 different dollars and packaging to collect with an issue price of $17,822. This of course includes buying the expensive gold set and buying 26 different baby proof sets for each alphabet dollar they contain. If you’re not that “into it” and do just want an example of every dollar issued along with every mintmark, counterstamp or privymark then you will have to obtain 52 coins in 2015.
I feel collectors are moving more towards collecting the $2 coin with the various coloured designs, these have been issued into circulation and are certainly bringing new collectors to the hobby. Collecting the dollar coin has has become too much of a chore and is no longer a fun thing to do. Perhaps a coloured dollar into circulation should be next on the to-do list for the RAM.
