Minted by the Royal Australian Mint and about to be released by Australia Post is a Four Coin set of $1 Coins commemorating Australian Dinosaurs. They will also be issued into circulation through the tills at Australia Post Offices.
I managed to get a couple of the sets early and have added the coins to Numista.
There are two different sets with slightly different covers.
One with privymarks and one without privymarks.
The Privymarks are [D], [I], [N] and [O] … For DINO!
Here is my grumpy old man, get off my lawn post for the week:
Does Australia release any coins for circulation anymore, or just these non-circulating tokens?
U.S. mint among others have been doing the very same thing. Commemorative and special releases ad nauseum in an attempt to appeal to a variety of collectors. Sales help the mints sustain themselves, but unfortunately floods the market to no end. I have a few of my favorites and do purchase some when released so I can't really complain. To each his own I suppose.
Here is my grumpy old man, get off my lawn post for the week:
Does Australia release any coins for circulation anymore, or just these non-circulating tokens?
Sorry to disappoint you but these coins will be going into circulation. They are not tokens they are valid currency and can and will be used to buy things. Australia Post will be giving them in change at its over 4,320 Post Offices at face value. These coins are standard size 25 mm, 9 gm $1 coins and mix in with the normal circulating coins.
The Aussie Coin Hunt coins were also issued the same way and although the promotion to give them in change at Post Offices has pretty much finished now, the coins are now found everywhere. I get them in change at the supermarket, in coin rolls and at the local pub.
So far this year the Royal Australian Mint has issued standard 20 cent, 50 cent and $2 coins dated 2022 into circulation also.
The $1 coins issued by the Perth Mint however, while they are Legal Tender, are oversized at 30.7 mm & 13.5 gm and they are never found in circulation. They are definitely NCLT.
As to the Royal Mint in the UK, I think they release a lot of BU stuff at premium prices that look like normal circulating coinage, but they never put them into actual circulation. I suppose it is a way for these Mints to make money so to speak and increase their bottom line.
Cheers Mike
Master Referee - See my profile for what I collect.
Do I need to mention the Royal Canadian Mint? It's total madness over here…
As for the Australian Dinosaur set, shouldn't the coin sheets be updated to “circulating commemorative”? They say “non circulating” but surely the default option is “circulating” when it exists.
Do I need to mention the Royal Canadian Mint? It's total madness over here…
As for the Australian Dinosaur set, shouldn't the coin sheets be updated to “circulating commemorative”? They say “non circulating” but surely the default option is “circulating” when it exists.
You are right, I will fix that, just an oversight on my part when I created the pages. Thanks for picking that up.
Mike
Master Referee - See my profile for what I collect.
Here is my grumpy old man, get off my lawn post for the week:
Does Australia release any coins for circulation anymore, or just these non-circulating tokens?
Sorry to disappoint you but these coins will be going into circulation. They are not tokens they are valid currency and can and will be used to buy things. Australia Post will be giving them in change at its over 4,320 Post Offices at face value. These coins are standard size 25 mm, 9 gm $1 coins and mix in with the normal circulating coins.
The Aussie Coin Hunt coins were also issued the same way and although the promotion to give them in change at Post Offices has pretty much finished now, the coins are now found everywhere. I get them in change at the supermarket, in coin rolls and at the local pub.
So far this year the Royal Australian Mint has issued standard 20 cent, 50 cent and $2 coins dated 2022 into circulation also.
The $1 coins issued by the Perth Mint however, while they are Legal Tender, are oversized at 30.7 mm & 13.5 gm and they are never found in circulation. They are definitely NCLT.
As to the Royal Mint in the UK, I think they release a lot of BU stuff at premium prices that look like normal circulating coinage, but they never put them into actual circulation. I suppose it is a way for these Mints to make money so to speak and increase their bottom line.
Cheers Mike
Thank you for the clarification Mike. From a far outsiders' perspective, it seems like you Aussies are only making NCLTs. I am glad to be wrong and these aren't tokens or bubblegum coins. Happy collecting.
Seriously do they think its 1993 or something. Remember the huge Dinosaur fad back then with Jurassic Park 1 and the Puppet show about Dinosaurs with the potty mouthed baby? I remember every country in the world issued a set or more of stamps with dinosaurs. 1993 was for dinosaurs, what 1996 was for the Macarena.
But on the plus side, at least this stuff is affordable. $12 is NOT breaking the bank and $20 for the privy mark coins is great for the serious collectors like me (I am a collectorsaurus I guess). Even the four silver proofs for $200 is reasonable.
In New Zealand the coins would be $5 coloured silver ounce things that cost like $159 + $25 Postage and Handling each and there would be a gold half ounce coin for like $4,500 and they would mint like 250 of them.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
I just realised one of these coins is the Australovenator, which makes the dinosaur sound like a prehistoric sex machine!
But seriously, Australia has just gone nuts with all these additional $1 and $2 coin issues. I mean we had 20 AFL coins in 2023, 10 Big things of Australia (Intellect or books was NOT amongst them), and gimmicks like 1 coloured coin in every 10 and also several coins which are NCLT meaning they make just 100k or so and sell them for like $15 each. There was also 4 coins celebrating the Matildas (Female soccer team, which actually reached 4th place in the soccer world cup - unlike co hosts New Zealand which faltered in the opening stages). But NZ did not issue mountains of bubblegum coins.
There was also 3 bubblegum $2 coins showing soccer balls on graphics of goal lines. Since 2012, Australia has issued over 60 bubblegum $2 coins and over 250 $1 coins (3 lots of Alphabet coins = 78 coins). I mean they just release coins for the sake of releasing them, then you have Privy Marks like C for Canberra which are rarer and the A coin with an Envelope for Australia Post.
Most of the worst are released through Woolworths supermarkets (Different company from USA and recently rebranding our Countdown supermarkets here in Noo Zillund) like defunct Aussie TV shows that only Aussies know about like Mr Squiggle and Possum Majic. The Renniks catalogue values the first 3 major coloured $2 coins high (2012 Red Poppy - $400, 2013 Purple Coronation - $210 and 2014 Remembrance - $75). Rest are $8 or $10 except sports and TV show based coins which are $5 or $6, which are likely handling charges.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Yes, Australia issued plenty of coins in recent years however for most of them (alphabeth, afl etc) are issued to circulation too so you can choose: buy UNC for higher price or try to find it in change. That's good solution, much better thank in UK where you have practically only BUNC coins (1-2 per year issued to circulation). Anyway, I think 4 alphabeth series (one was in 2015-16) is too much and some coins have boring design, I would prefer to have more nice series with cities, states, animals etc. - not 26 each time, but 10-15 coins is suficient.
Another case with NCLT coins issued in cards sold by 15$ each or more… here is also huge number of coins so this is quite expensive hobby if you want to collect them all, specially that the terrible way of sales make the coins are sold out in few minutes and prices are rocket soon after emission for some of them.
Australian 2$ with coloured ring, most of them are simply ugly (too small coin to have nice design and coloured ring around), also quality of print is bad but it's also issued into circulation in most cases do no need to spend fortune.
Agree totally, the 2015 to 2017 Alphabet series was released as a NCLT series only. It had 3 permutations in silver proof and 3 standard Aluminium bronze sets, the gimmicks being the colour of each letter changed each year, but designs remained the same on the silver and the al bronze coins were dated 2015, 16 or 17.
This set however was not released into circulation and sold way above face value. Renniks lists mintages of just 1,800 to 3,500 per coin for the standard and a few hundred each for silver proofs. Value is $95 per coin for standard and $150 per silver coin. Of course that is wildly high but with just 3k minted on average, they were hardly circulating. The designs on these coins are much nicer and more professional than the awful ones on 2019 - 2022 coins.
2019 coins are very hard to find with just 32k of each one minted and no official tube of 26 sold. Still this is 10x as many than the earlier set and Renniks catalogues them at $5 each per uncirculated coin (Meaning the usual EF/AU coin from change is much less - $5 is really a handling charge). Complete sets and individual coins were sold at mark up and today the 2019 set is still avidly collected and eluding many collectors. Proofs and silver proofs again issued and they are rare.
The 2021 and 2022 sets saw much higher issues of 261k (2021) and 239k(2022) per coin and the open promotion of the tube sets ($50) and individual coins with a information card ($3) and of course a push in album people could buy. The 2021 also offered a coloured Great Barrier Reef coin (G) which was in 1 of every 10 tubes (17.5k) as 175k tube sets were sold (My Aussie mate got me a tube, but alas the G was a standard coin). No coloured coin was offered in 2022. These sets were released into general circulation - but of course as coins get wear its less interesting and again proof and proof silver versions were offered.
No Alphabet series was done in 2023, but 20 footy dollars (2 are general circ, other 18 NCLT but heavily promoted), 10 Big things, 4 Matildas and 3 Marmite coins are more than making up the slack this year!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Agree totally, the 2015 to 2017 Alphabet series was released as a NCLT series only. It had 3 permutations in silver proof and 3 standard Aluminium bronze sets, the gimmicks being the colour of each letter changed each year, but designs remained the same on the silver and the al bronze coins were dated 2015, 16 or 17.
This set however was not released into circulation and sold way above face value. Renniks lists mintages of just 1,800 to 3,500 per coin for the standard and a few hundred each for silver proofs. Value is $95 per coin for standard and $150 per silver coin. Of course that is wildly high but with just 3k minted on average, they were hardly circulating. The designs on these coins are much nicer and more professional than the awful ones on 2019 - 2022 coins.
2019 coins are very hard to find with just 32k of each one minted and no official tube of 26 sold. Still this is 10x as many than the earlier set and Renniks catalogues them at $5 each per uncirculated coin (Meaning the usual EF/AU coin from change is much less - $5 is really a handling charge). Complete sets and individual coins were sold at mark up and today the 2019 set is still avidly collected and eluding many collectors. Proofs and silver proofs again issued and they are rare.
The 2021 and 2022 sets saw much higher issues of 261k (2021) and 239k(2022) per coin and the open promotion of the tube sets ($50) and individual coins with a information card ($3) and of course a push in album people could buy. The 2021 also offered a coloured Great Barrier Reef coin (G) which was in 1 of every 10 tubes (17.5k) as 175k tube sets were sold (My Aussie mate got me a tube, but alas the G was a standard coin). No coloured coin was offered in 2022. These sets were released into general circulation - but of course as coins get wear its less interesting and again proof and proof silver versions were offered.
No Alphabet series was done in 2023, but 20 footy dollars (2 are general circ, other 18 NCLT but heavily promoted), 10 Big things, 4 Matildas and 3 Marmite coins are more than making up the slack this year!
My Renniks catalogue is the new 32nd edition (Sep 2023) which I had amazoned from Oz, however the book is great but stops listing coins after May 2023 and none of the Big Things, Footy, or Matilda coins are listed, Last $1 listed is Creatures of the Deep amd Vegemite (I keep calling it Marmite as that is what we eat in NEW ZEALAND!) on toast.
Last $2 coin (It mixes NCLT with general circulation) is Elder (apparently not issued in 2023 so its guessing), Legacy, gigging Aboriginal baby (Part of 2023 baby set), Tooth Fairy (More NCLT) and QE2 legacy (Issued APRIL)
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
You are right I found a picture of a 2019 tube, my mate only started sending me coins in late 2021, when I was attracted by those $2 ring coins and he was in a position to give me Aussie commems for various Kiwi coins I sent him and it all springboarded from there. Anyway he sent me the 2nd and 3rd sets in their tubes and found all the 1st ones out of change for me!.
Here is the latest I got
Set of 10 big things dollars (2023) Set of 4 Matildas dollars and 6 x $2 ring coins, 3 x Vegemite and the 3 x Matildas soccer.
All pictures enlarge.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Series 2 and 3 of Alpha dollaz tubes Wiggles set of 4 x $2 coins and 2 x $1
Various $2 including a coloured one 2 sets of 2020 Olympics (Issued in 2021 but dated 2020 due to Covid).
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Fair dinkum, you caught me out. Was that one of those 1 in 10 tubes has the coloured coin?
Just grateful I have a complete set, my mate found getting all the 2019s out of circulation hard work.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
I bought 10 tubes of 2022 alphabet and I got one coloured X inside.
I did the same with Big things and I got 2 coloured (and 8 normal). Unfortunatelly still no have the coloured G (Great barrier reef) even I bought 5 or 6 tubes at the time.
