All About the Coins of Australia: Their Stories and How to Collect Them

By David Miller

This is a book that should appeal to the general reader who wants to know more about Australias coinage and its fascinating history. It deals with its subject in an informal and topical way without too much technical jargon or irrelevant detail. There is an emphasis on advice for amateur coin collectors and anyone thinking of starting a collection. Along the way, you will come across some odd facts and interesting byways, together with stories and anecdotal information covering a wide spectrum of special, unusual, and historical types of coinage. Those may be less likely to find their way into the average household collection, but there is a full guide to the coins that you will want as a home collector, supplemented by lists and catalogues that will be useful for checking if anything is missing. At the end, there is a colored virtual album.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: May 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524521578

David Miller

David A. Miller is the vice president of Slingshot Group Coaching where he serves as lead trainer utilizing the IMPROVleadership coaching strategy with ministry leaders around the country. He has served as a pastor, speaker, teacher, and coach in diverse contexts, from thriving, multi-site churches to parachurch ministries.

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Copyright © 2017 by David Miller. 754049

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017908128

ISBN:   Softcover      978-1-5245-2158-5

   Hardcover   978-1-5245-2159-2

   EBook      978-1-5245-2157-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/22/2017

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.xlibris.com.au

FOREWORD

I decided to write this book in the hope of attracting more people to the hobby of coin collecting. It should also appeal to those who just want to know a bit more about the coinage of Australia. It is not intended to be a complete catalogue of every Australian coin. That has been done, and very adequately, by others. Nor could it be described as a manual for experts or professionals.

As well as discussing our standard coinage, I have included stories and information about a wide spectrum of special, unusual, and historical coin types that are unlikely to find their way into domestic collections. I thought that might add perspective. Australia has produced more than its share of famous rarities and museum pieces. They are all here, along with their stories, but my purpose has never been to produce an investor’s guide. I won’t be the one to show you how to make a fortune out of rare coins, but that needn’t stop you.

Towards the end of the book, I have provided comprehensive guides and lists that should help domestic and casual collectors keep an eye on their collections and fill in any gaps, along with a virtual album.

I started collecting coins as a child. I think that was because there seemed to be a lot of different sorts and I wanted one of each. Children are like that, but the collector instinct doesn’t always vanish with the getting of wisdom. Perhaps in my case it’s the other way round.

The coins I collect and have catalogued here are the kind that just about anybody can get hold of. So far as coinage is concerned, Australia is a young country; we are lucky that we don’t have to go back far in history to be able to acquire a satisfying collection of the standard coinage of our commonwealth and to do so without breaking the bank.

Coins make ideal collectibles. They are robust and permanent; witness the huge numbers of ancient Greek and Roman examples still around. They yield tangible evidence of the history of their times and provide permanent mementos of the people, events, and cultures of their eras, ancient or modern. They are the ultimate democratic artefacts.

I do enjoy my coins. I look at them often. I hope some others might feel the same way. That is my real motivation for writing.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am, of course, indebted for much of the factual information in this book to the authors of the many comprehensive guides, manuals, and websites; to professionals, researchers, and experts in the numismatic fraternity; and to many other interested and interesting parties.

More specifically, I thank the executive of the Royal Australian Mint for permission to reproduce coin images that appear on their website and in their catalogues.

The Perth Mint has also kindly given me permission to copy from their website the images shown on the relevant page.

In addition, Downies—a major coin, banknote, and collectible retailer with stores in Melbourne and Sydney—have allowed me to use illustrations from their catalogues while continuing to provide news of new releases, as well as much of my coin collection.

I have referred to Greg McDonald’s and Renniks coin guides in the text. While I have not, of course, quoted from or reproduced any of the contents of either of those publications, it is a fact that no collector of Australian coins would be able to manage for long without recourse to one or both of those invaluable guides. I am therefore grateful that Australia’s two principal annual coin catalogues have been keeping me up to date with their comprehensive listings.

CONTENTS

Why Collect Coins?

PLEASURE OR PROFIT

WHAT IS A COIN?

WORDS

WHAT’S IT WORTH?

DIFFERENT SORTS OF COINS

WHAT I CALL DISPLAY COINS

DECIMAL CURRENCY: OUR SPENDING MONEY

BAG AND ROLL

NCLT: THE COINS WE DON’T SPEND

INTERLUDE: SOME CHEMISTRY

HOW DECIMAL CURRENCY HAS EVOLVED

LOOK HARDER

HER MAJESTY

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

GETTING COMPLICATED: MINTMARKS

CARDBOARD AND PLASTIC

THE ALBUM

TECHNICOLOR

A FEW TRAPS

SOME COINS ARE ROUND

AND SOME ARE POTATO-SHAPED

FUNNY DENOMINATIONS

THE MORNING PAPER AND THE CHECKOUT

DRAWING LINES

HELP!

MINT STATISTICS: THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS AS THEY SEEM

BACK TO THE PAST: SHILLINGS AND PENCE

THE PREDECIMAL COLLECTION

THE PERFECT COIN

IF YOU WANT PROOF

COLLECTIBLE FAKES

‘IN THE WORLD OF MULES THERE ARE NO RULES’—OGDEN NASH

GOLD RUSH

SAVING SOUTH AUSTRALIA

NOT GOLD

A BIT MORE HISTORY

TOKENISM

BOLD WILLIAM TAYLOR

THE PRINCE AND HIS UN-AUSTRALIAN CURRENCY

COINS AT WAR

COINS THAT NEVER HAPPENED

THE REALLY HELPFUL ADVICE SECTION

Q AND A

FINALLY

APPENDIX I

PREDECIMAL LISTS

DECIMAL LISTS

APPENDIX II

DEALING WITH MINTMARKS, COUNTERSTAMPS, AND PRIVY MARKS

MINTMARKS THAT ARE NOT

PREDECIMAL MINTMARKS

DECIMAL COINAGE MARKS

VIRTUAL ALBUMS

WHY COLLECT COINS?

The collector bug. This is how it starts. We all use coins and rarely take much notice unless something catches our eye. Have you ever been curious as to why they look boringly similar until you come across one with an unfamiliar design? The year of manufacture is marked on every coin, so you may have wondered whether that is significant or if some dates are scarcer than others. If so, might you perhaps have chanced upon something unusual and worth hanging on to? A few people I know like to put aside coins with unique commemorative designs just because they are different. Many have recently reported finding coloured $2 coins in their change occasionally—so occasionally, in fact, that they will stash the coloured specimen away as something novel and interesting. I’d say all these people could be incubating the insidious virus that can eventually lead to serious coin collecting.

The central section of the book will deal with the familiar kinds of coins we spend. If you bother to sort through a random assortment of them, you will have trouble finding some dates, and others will be missing altogether. Some of those with commemorative designs will be found easily; others, hardly ever. You might be surprised to learn that close to 300 different types—some common, others very scarce—can be found in change, counting each year, design, and denomination as different.

Once you have caught the bug, your first symptom will be a compulsion to get hold of an example of each of these 300 or so types. That could take years, because older coins are being removed from circulation as they wear out and there are some that were only released in relatively small numbers. In any case, your collection will contain some pretty unattractive elderly specimens. That is when the virus can really take hold—as you go looking for the missing years and try replacing each sadder-looking piece with something shiny and unworn.

By that stage, you are probably beyond cure, so having succumbed, you might as well search out fellow sufferers, dealers, online markets, and so on to help fill in the gaps. Some will be easy to fill, some harder, but a persistent symptom of the collector virus is an obsessive aversion to gaps. Fortunately, you will not need to spend a fortune to keep the collection growing. The task can be fulfilled, and the inevitable difficulties and frustrations along the way generally just serve to fuel the obsession.

Don’t think that will be the end of it either; your condition is classed as chronic, so the quest will not cease. The first time you check a catalogue or visit a coin shop, you will come across coins basically like those you have been sifting out from your change but displaying dates missing from everyday coinage or with unfamiliar designs. You will find plenty of otherwise ordinary coins that for various reasons have never been released into circulation. You are going to have to have all those too. You are now beyond help, so you might as well read on.

PLEASURE OR PROFIT

While not necessarily mutually exclusive, there are two excellent but fundamentally different reasons to collect coins: pleasure and profit. At the outset, I am declaring my main purpose in writing this to be the simple fun of collecting. Buying and selling art or artefacts for profit requires firstly, of course, money, and secondly, intestinal fortitude. As they say, it’s not hard to make a small fortune if you start with a large one. Acquiring that rare coin might make life worthwhile just because it fills an empty hole in the album or it might be a financial stepping stone to greater things. It can’t really be both, or you’ll still have that space to fill.

If precious metal, artistically coloured images, novelty designs, polished proof coins, or precious historical objects are your thing, you are either an investor—perhaps a shrewd one—or the curator of a museum. If you hanker after an album with not too many empty spaces, you are a collector.

Having decided that collector sounds more like you, now is the time to start. Australia is one of the few countries in the world where a satisfying collection of all its common coinage is still within reach. The earliest commonwealth coins were minted in 1910, the first decimal coins in 1966. You will probably decide to start with the latter. You can still get all six of the inaugural decimal series, in untouched condition, for the price of two beers and a pizza.

Some might find the concept of acquiring coins in the absence of financial goals or investment advice daunting. The fact is that anyone who takes the time to find out a little about the coins they buy and makes sensible choices will never lose money. In fact, the reverse is pretty much guaranteed. The great rarities change hands infrequently but, as with stocks and shares, not always at a profit in the short term. They will always remain valuable and irreplaceable but are for the long haul.

Gold and silver prices fluctuate with the markets, and the more elaborate, themed, collector display coins go in and out of fashion. However, coins of basic circulation type, though they may not all be rare or likely to make anyone a fortune, will always be desirable and will never lose their value. On the contrary, most have appreciated significantly over the years. Once a coin has had its short minting run, it will never be made again. Nor will it deteriorate once added to a collection. Know your coins, and it’s hard to go wrong.

For those bent on trading and investing or creating a rare-coin portfolio, there are numerous useful publications, guides, and catalogues. Coin clubs, associations, forums, and blogs are there to guide the willing through the minefield of merchants, market fluctuations, auction rules, tax obligations, valuations, insurance, superannuation issues, and the like. There is a wealth of ready information out there that is slanted towards investing, but much less is available for the straight-out hobbyist, hence this book.

WHAT IS A COIN?

Everybody knows what a coin is, but a definition will not come amiss all the same. A coin is a metal artefact mandated by the law of the country of issue and inscribed with an official face value. In Australia, at least for now, it must bear the British monarch’s image on one side: the obverse. There are some more arcane rules too. For instance, if you are expecting your own famous image to appear on a coin some day, you have two options: convince someone that you are a prince or princess or be dead. British royalty have the sole right to be depicted on our currency while living.

Even if you do obligingly die, the Royal Australian Mint is not permitted to celebrate that fact or the anniversary thereof—just your birth and highlights of your brilliant career—and then only provided you have kept on the right side of the law. There is hope, though. Even if you have had a speeding ticket and find these rules excessively restrictive, it may be that you still have a chance with the Perth Mint. You can legally appear on a Perth Mint coin in company with the likes of Dame Edna Everage (just change your name), Mickey Mouse, Ned Kelly, and Spiderman.

All that aside, only nationally licensed mints may produce coins, which must by law be accepted in exchange for advertised goods to the value written on the coin. You may choose to spend your beautiful frog-shaped multicolour designer proof piece that cost you $500, but no merchant is compelled to give you more than $1 worth of goods for it. Medals, medallions, and round metal things produced by unlicensed mints are not coins.

To a collector, a coin is variously an investment, a work of art, something to satisfy that compulsion for completion, or perhaps a memento or token of some other interest. The fact that it has history and that it is official, public, and substantial somehow makes your coin an item of significance and permanence.

WORDS

Every hobby has its language. Here are just a few of the definitions used in numismatic jargon:

• Coin. We now know what that is.

• Numismatics. Studying or collecting coins.

• Face, etc. A coin has