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March 22, 2009
Australian 50 Cent Coins Value
Australian 1977 Silver Jubilee 50c
One of the most popular Australian coins to collect is the 50 cent coin. This is because it has been issued with many different commemorative designs since it's release in 1966 and the large size of the coin means the designs really stick out when you receive them in change. Sometimes you'll get a 50c in your change and you'll turn it over and Captain Cook will stare back at you and you'll either have never seen one before or not have seen one for years and you'll think....how much is that worth? It must be worth something right? It was minted 38 years ago and you almost never see them anymore!
Well a lot of the time that 50c you don't remember seeing before is usually worth...wait for...50c. Yes, 50c. Sad but true. See the thing is, a lot of these commemorative coins were minted, and when I say a lot I mean a lot. After all. they were intended to circulate so the Royal Australian Mint churned them out in their millions and tens of millions. The other problem is that the public at the time hoarded these things so there are tens of thousands of money boxes loaded down with uncirculated or near uncirculated examples of them. So sadly they are not rare. It's worth having a look at the mintages of the commemorative 50c coins up until 2000 and the catalogue values of an uncirculated example (there have been a spate of them since then, and I don't think it's worth covering them). The mintages and CV's are from the 2009 Pocket Guide to Australian Coin and Banknotes.
- 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, mintage: 20,830,800, $12.00
- 1995 Wear Dunlop, mintage: 15,869,200, $7.00
- 1998 Bass and Flinders, mintage: 22,426,000, $7.00
- 2000 Year 2000 Millenium, mintage: 16,630,000, $7.00
So these are the prices you can expect to pay for an example of these coins. When you come to sell them expect considerably less. If your coins are not truly uncirculated expect to get offered face value (though you may get a little more if you try selling them on Ebay).
You'll find that some normal circulation issues have much lower mintages than the commemorative coins, and the fact that they were not hoarded means they can be worth a little more. And before I get onto those, no the 1966 round 50 cent is not rare and nor is it particularly valuable. It does have real silver in it though which is different to all the other 50c coins issued and makes it worth a bit even if it is a banged up circulated coin. Anyway, back onto the circulation issues. Truly uncirculated 50c coins from 1969 (cv $25), 1971 ($25), 1972 ($55), 1973 ($60), 1974 ($35), 1985 ($13), 1993 ($22) , and 1997 ($30) are all worth more than any commemorative 50c coin. In fact some of the mintages are small by comparison, the 1985 and 1993 coins had mintages of less than 1 million and may be worth putting away for the future if you find them.
In the next issue of the this series I'll cover some 50c varieties you can look for in your change. These wont show up too often but they are worth keeping an eye out for.
Posted by mnemtsas at March 22, 2009 1:10 PM
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