Well it looks like the latest HOT product that is stirring up a feeding frenzy on eBay are the 2014 Mob of Roos Dollar rolls that we mentioned in this entry. Dealers could buy the rolls at face value at various RAM product launches and now that they have reached the secondary market the price has soared on the expectation of a limited release of this type of roll. The rolls are selling for $120+ on eBay right now (3 July 2014) and some are nearly reaching $140 in auctions. One enterprising member of the Australian Coin Forum contacted the RAM directly about how the rolls were made and what the numbers released were. Here’s the answer he got:

The Royal Australian Mint did roll these coins in-house and made them available to attendees on the basis that they would be able to pay and take them upon participation in the forums.

The Contact Centre staff said you also rang to ask how many rolled coins were produced. The Royal Australian Mint prepared a sufficient amount to meet the forecasted demand. The final amount can’t be disclosed as this number may vary depending on final demand.

Regards

Customer Service Team
Royal Australian Mint

There’s two things of interest here. First, the RAM did actually roll the coins themselves which they did not do with their last official roll releases. And second, the number of rolls released could increase to meet forecasted demand. And I strongly suspect that once the RAM and their dealers catch a whiff of the heat in the secondary market for these rolls that demand will certainly increase and the RAM will roll more. I advise caution before spending up big on these rolls because the “limited” release is very likely to become much less limited very soon.

Update 20 July 2014

In the last couple of weeks the number of these rolls available via the primary market (that is, direct from dealers) has increased considerably. They have been available in numbers from big dealers like Downies Australia for $36.50 per roll and as we write this we are aware of one seller who has 20 rolls available for sale at $40 each. A quick browse around eBay shows rolls available as BINs (buy it now) for anywhere between $45 and $60. Our previous advice to not spend up big on these rolls (when they were getting $120+ per roll) has proven to be exactly accurate as the rolls are now available at 1/2 to 1/3 of the peak prices. They may be worth accumulating long term (think in terms of years) at $40-$50 a roll but we wouldn’t advise spending any more than that on them while supplies appear relatively plentiful.

It’s getting late in the year and one had assumed we wouldn’t see a 2014 issue of the mob of roos dollar coin in circulation. After the release of 23 million Anzac centenary commemorative dollars it seemed clear that was what you’d be finding in your change. In a stroke of cunning the Royal Australian Mint have in fact struck a million mob of roos dollar coins for circulation. This will be the only way to find the standard mob of roos struck on the aluminium bronze planchet and will be the lowest mintage circulating Australian dollar coin to date. This year, for the 30th anniversary of the dollar coin many versions of the Stuart Devlin design 5 kangaroos coin have been produced, but this is the first we’ve seen of the basic standard coin. In another twist to the story the Mint held their 2015 product launch last week in Sydney and Melbourne where they offered these circulation MOR $1’s to dealers for face value as an enticement to attend the event. These coins were rolled in plain brown paper with red writing “ONE DOLLAR $20”, not in RAM wrappered paper as we usually see genuine RAM rolls packaged but also not in identifiable security company paper. I’m yet to find an Anzac centenary dollar in my change so no doubt I’ll be waiting a long time to pickup one of these million kangaroo dollars. It’s not known where they’ll be distributed but I’d imagine one particular area of Australia will be hit hard with the remaining coins.

We’ve spent the whole day rolling out a new design for the blog as well as implementing an entirely new site engine. This will allow us to post bigger images, create new tools, and generally provide you with the coin collecting information you want in a more attractive and easier to read fashion -particularly when using a mobile device. We’re not moving all of the content from the old blog to this new one right now but will move a lot of it over as time permits. The old blog content is still available though, you can find what you want via the search box at the top right.

If you find anything that isn’t working (such as broken links or calculators) please let us know.

Those of you who entered the Royal Australian Mint ballot for the For Valour Victoria Cross Ten Dollar coin should now know if you were successful and hold the new release in your hand. If you weren’t successful then you should have received confirmation and be on the waiting list for available coins if they aren’t purchased by their selected ballot winner.

How long to hold onto such a coin is the biggest question given it’s popularity. I’ll go so far as to say this ballot is the most successful the RAM has run in recent times with interest from coin collectors, military enthusiasts far and wide and those who want to share in the Anzac centenary experience. From a small entry sample size of 3 in my own extended family we were successful in purchasing just one coin which agrees with the Mints statistics that they received 13,000 ballot entries for a coin with a 5,000 mintage.

For an outlay of $112 I was able to purchase one of these coins, and there was never a question that I would turn down the offer if given. I eagerly opened the box hoping with fingers crossed that I had received certificate number 100 (there are 100 VC recipients, their names on the coin). It wasn’t to be, the coin, a stunning antiqued bronze beauty eagerly awaiting being held, loose in the box. Without a capsule the coin is asking to be held which is the idea behind it’s manufacture. It’s antiqued bronze finish and large medallion-like size intended to be a tactile experience for collectors, light handling not likely to affect the finish -just like you’d hold a Victoria Cross medal itself.

Should I hold onto this new coin is the next BIG question. A ten dollar coin doesn’t, at all, fit into what I collect and they have proved poor investment purchases in the past. Many $10 silver decimal issues are generally traded well below their issue price at their silver content and don’t hold a numismatic value. It’s the theme here that has added to the success of this coin. Currently sales on auction site eBay see this coin selling for upwards of $600 with other website dealers allowing me to add 10 of these to my shopping cart at $699.99 (presumably that’s an error and they don’t have that kind of stock). You’d think though that once the excitement and hype has settled down so too will the price but time will only tell. This has been a good investment so far.

Last weekend on the 24th and 25th of May saw an ANDA Coin and Banknote Show being held in the Brisbane Table Tennis Centre. For those who are interested in stamps this year the show was held in conjunction with the Australian Philatelic Traders Association and there were a few more stamp dealers in attendance than is usually seen at the average ANDA show. Unfortunately only one of the blog authors managed to attend this show, which isn’t what we like to do usually. It’s always great to have a friend along to talk to and to make sure the coin you’re about to buy isn’t a dud. Travelling alone also meant that it was a fly-in-fly-out show, with a 6:00AM flight on Saturday leaving Adelaide for Brisbane and not touching down again in Adelaide until well after 10PM the same day.

I like the Table Tennis Centre as an ANDA show venue. It has been used for the Brisbane ANDA shows for a few years now and it’s easy to get to from both the airport and the city. The front door was manned (personned?) by voluneers from various Queensland coin and stamp clubs (such as the Queensland Numismatic Society) and admission for one day was $10. Once inside dealer tables were well laid out with plenty of seating and aisle space and the lighting was excellent There was a cafeteria selling food and drinks at reasonable prices (I got a sandwich and a drink at lunch time for $7.50) and staffed by volunteers from the table tennis centre. At one end of the venue was a bank of seating, usually used to watch table tennis action but in the case of this show, well used to rest the weary legs of show visitors. My only gripe about the center is that it’s not well air-conditioned and it was a little hot and humid inside this year. That being said most capital cities in Australia are unseasonably warm right now so perhaps if the weather wasn’t so messed up it wouldn’t have been so uncomfortable inside.

The Royal Australian Mint was in attendance this year and the RAM brought their portable press along, where for $10 you could press the button and counterstamp your own Voyage to Terra Australis dollar. According to the press operator the coin is supposed to have a mintage of 7,500 and no doubt will be distributed through the RAM dealer network. Never fear, if you didn’t attend the show it won’t be too hard for you to buy one of these coins. As well as the portable press the RAMfolk also brought along their usual array of NCLT and I am somewhat shamefaced to admit that I bought some of it. Including the new high relief 1 ounce mob of roos silver dollar and the pad-printed copper nickel mob of roos dollar. They are both pretty coins and interesting variations on the iconic circulation coin design minted for the 30th birthday of the Australian 1 dollar coin.

According to the ANDA Showguide I brought home with me there were another 41 dealers in attendance at the show and I can believe it. All tables had a dealer standing behind them and all of the tables were full of stock. If you came along to the show and didn’t find something to buy then you either were not looking hard enough, are extremely picky, or are completely broke. Apologies at first to the stamp dealers because I didn’t look at any of their tables so I cannot comment on who was or wasn’t there. Local Queensland coin dealers of note that I recall include VP Coins, Global Coins & Banknotes, Roxbury’s Auction House, Gold Coast Coins and Stamps, International Auction Galleries, Colonial Coins and Medals, David Rider Numismatics, and Claude Andresco Coins. Dealers who had made the trip from interstate included Sterling & Currency, Pacific Rim Coins, Australian Coin Auctions (Downies), Prospect Coins, Universal Coin Company, and Canberra Numisco. Particular credit must go to Andrew Crellin (of Sterling and Currency) who, having travelled the farthest of all dealers in attendance (from Western Australia) still had an amazing range of material to look at. I bought a couple of things off of him and I appreciate the effort he took to bring some specific coins for me to look at.

Attendance before about 1.30PM was extremely strong and for the first time in a long time at an ANDA show I had to fight for a spot to sit and look. And amazingly it seems that people didn’t just come to get their coins from the RAM, with most dealers reporting to me that their sales had been good. The types of coins being sold seemed to cover the full gamut, ranging from recent release NCLT, Australian decimal singles, modern world coins, quality Australian pre-decimal, and pricey errors and ancient coins. This doesn’t surprise me though, as I believe it’s a buyers market right now, especially for collectors of premium (and scarce) material. This idea was backed up after the show when I was talking to a very well known Australian numismatic identity. He suggested that now was the time to be snaffling up coin (and banknote) rarities with an eye to future long-term returns. For those (like me) who do not look to buy items from the top end of the market there were still bargains to be had for those on a lower budget. For example, the bottom has really dropped out of the Australian mint and proof set market and if you’re looking to complete your run of sets now is the time to do it.

Given that we are strong supporters of third party graded coins (in particular those graded by PCGS) I should comment on their representation at the show. Chris Buesnell of Pacific Rim Coins had cases full of slabbed coins as did Sterling and Currency and Universal Coin Company. IAG and Monetarium Adelaide had some rarities in PCGS and NGC slabs and I noticed a few dealers with graded bullion coins (such as Kookaburras, silver kangaroos, and American silver eagles). Graded coins seemed to be primarily the domain of the “bigger” dealers though with very few of the local Queensland dealers having any at all. One comment I have to make though is that this is the first show in a long time where the discussion I had with show attendees regarding third party graded coins was entirely positive. Perhaps the collector market is starting to see the advantage of getting their coins graded and certified by companies such as PCGS and NGC.

That’s another ANDA show report done and dusted. Thanks to everyone in Brisbane who I met and talked with. Thanks to the members of the Australian Coin Forum who I met at the show and in particular to the forum member in the Pac-Man hat that made him easy to find. And thanks of course to my fellow blog author who stayed home in Adelaide and manned (personned?) the battle stations while I was in Queensland looking at coins. Both of us will be attending the next ANDA show in Melbourne in early August so stay tuned for another riveting show report coming your way soon!