When coins leave the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra to enter circulation as our new currency they are usually sent to security companies for distrbution. Security companies distribute coins to banks and retailers. The bulk lots of coins from the RAM are packaged by these security companies into manageable parcels for ease of counting and distributing. Security companies in Australia who distribute coinage are:

Bulk coin is processed from the mint by security companies into rolls and bags of coins in different denominations

All coins received by the security companies are poured into hoppers, fed through and counted into rolls or bags in these denominations. Security companies do this with new coin and also recovered circulated coins from their clients.

Here's the dilemma with getting rolled coins from security companies. It's not always certain that all coins in the roll are new coins. The end coins may be new but the coins within the roll could be recirculated currency. It's pot luck unless you have been there and seen all new coins fed into the hopper of the rolling machine. Often though it is safe to assume all coins are new if one or more rolls have been cracked open and it's determined that the batch is of all new coin. With mint bags it's easier because you can see the coins within the packaging. Mint bags have a downside in that the coins are free to move within the bag thus sustain damage.

In the past coins have also been rolled by the Reserve Bank prior to distribution after leaving the mint. Who rolled the coins can be determined by reading the labelling on the paper of the wrapper.

Just recently the RAM has returned to rolling coins themselves. It's common to find early decimal rolls in RAM paper. You used to be able to buy rolled new coin directly from the mint but they ceased doing this years ago. Since 2007 the RAM has been selling special rolls of comemmorative dollar coins in specially designed paper. These rolls were collector only issues and include:

We've looked at all the diffrent types of clips before and how they've occured but how can you really tell if you have a genuine clip or not?

Often it is difficult to tell if a clip is a genuine error from the mint or if someone has simply used a guillotine or tin snips to manufacture the defect. There are a few distinguishing features that will help you determine a genuine coin clip. A genuine clip will show at least one of these effects.

1. The Blakesley Effect: named after the American numismatist who first described this defect. It occurs as a weakness on the rim opposing the clip site. This only occurs on coins in which the planchets have been pre-rimmed before striking. Coins that are rimmed during the striking process of the coin such as the Australian 50c will not show the Blakesley effect. You can see an example of this effect in the right image outlined in red below.

2. Fish-Tailing: is a deformation of the lettering in the legend or on the design around the clip site. Instead of the edges of the letters being straight, they have an inward lip and the metal has flowed outwards at the edges. Due to the incomplete planchet (the clip) the metal has not been contained during the striking so the edges of the letters or edges of the design have fish-tailed outwards. This will occur on the lettering or on any part of the design near the clip site. Often this might only be distinguishable under magnification, the image below left has been highlighted so you can see the fishtailing affecting this halfpenny.

3. Strike Weakness: will sometimes occur near the clip site. This is due to the planchet being slightly thinner on the edge at the clip. Because of the missing metal it will flow into the void creating a weak strike or a weakness in the area near the clip. This is clearly shown in the image below left.

Question:

I have just looked at the Australian Silver Coin Value Calculator. I have 414 florins '46 - 63. What would I do next to realize this value? Maybe some of them are of more value than the silver content. Could you advise me?

Thankyou

Answer:

Hi, Thank you for your question. Realistically if you take your coins to a coin or bullion dealer they may only offer you 30-50% of the silver value -their buy price is their call. To get a better price than that you may want to try eBay where past sales show you might achieve a bit less than bullion (remembering buyers factor in postage which is a killer, then there's the fees you'll have to pay eBay). I'm assuming because you have this bulk lot that they are mostly worn and wouldn't fetch any more than bullion unless any were in uncirculated condition. There are no particular key date years to look out for in your lot.

Regards,

The australian-threepence.com team

Please note that in the interest of anonymity we always remove names so that we can share our questions and answers with everyone.

You can find the value of your pre-decimal silver coins on the Australian Silver Coin Value Calculator

This was the first year Australia had a one dollar coin commemorative issue. We had previously only seen the standard Mob of Roos design. For this first dollar commemorative we saw the reverse design modeled by Horst Hahne with the obverse effigy modeled by Raphael Maklouf. It is the standard 25mm diameter circulating aluminium bronze Australian dollar coin weighing 9 grams. Aluminium bronze is composed of 92% Copper, 6% Aluminium and 2% Nickel. 25,100,000 of these coins were released into circulation in 1986. 16,702 coins were later re-struck and housed in a five coin uncirculated set "The Australian One Dollar Five Coin Set". A sterling silver version of this coin can be found in the 1990 Masterpieces in Silver set. 1986 was proclaimed the International Year of Peace by the United Nations and this was celebrated in Australia with a circulating one dollar design featuring a peace dove, hands and a wreath. These iconic peace symbols incorporated into the design by Horst Hahne put forward the values of the United Nations to continue peace efforts wordwide as not only an achievement but a continuing goal. A goal also for ourselves as a nation within the UN. "the United Nations proclaims that the peoples of the United Nations are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and for this end to practise tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite their strength to maintain international peace and security"

The circulation coin for 2005 was the "Peace" dollar comemmorating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, also known as the Dancing Man dollar. A Mob of Roos coin was not intended for circulation initially but when a Mob of Roos reverse die was accidently paired with the 2005 Ian Rank-Broadley obverse and a run produced it was decided to continue with the release to avoid any negative publicity. This was the first year in which both a fine silver and a gold set were available to collectors. 2005 was also the final year in the Koala series of Baby Sets.

Year	Description	Type	Mint Mark	Composition	Notes	Mintage
2005	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Circulation	5,792,000
	Dancing Man	Circulation	None	AlBr	Circulation	31,788,000
	Gallipoli	Circulation	C	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	88,424
	Gallipoli	Circulation	C	AlBr	RAM Gallery Press	unknown
	Gallipoli	Circulation	S	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	35,782
	Gallipoli	Circulation	S shallow	AlBr	Portable Press Pacific Explorer World Stamp Expo	3,000
	Gallipoli	Circulation	S shallow	AlBr	Portable Press Sydney ANDA Show	2,799
	Gallipoli	Circulation	B	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	35,596
	Gallipoli	Circulation	B shallow	AlBr	Portable Press Brisbane ANDA Show	2,611
	Gallipoli	Circulation	B shallow	AlBr	Portable Press Brisbane Agricultural Show	3,792
	Gallipoli	Circulation	M	Al Br	RAM and Dealer Sales	28,252
	Gallipoli	Circulation	M shallow	AlBr	Portable Press Royal Melbourne Show	10,475
	Gallipoli	Circulation	G	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	30,904
	Gallipoli	Circulation	G shallow	AlBr	Portable Press Australian War Memorial Canberra	4,548
	Gallipoli	Proof	None	.999 Silver	Silver Proof Interrupted Reeding	14,900
	Dancing Man	Circulation	None	Al Br	Koala Baby Mint Set	28,853
	Dancing Man	Circulation	None	AlBr	Mint Set	71,546
	Dancing Man	Proof	None	AlBr	Proof Set	33,520
	Dancing Man	Proof	None	AlBr	Koala Baby Proof Set	12,884
	Dancing Man	Specimen	None	AlBr	Wedding Set	3,627
	Dancing Man	Proof	None	.999 Silver	Fine Silver Year Set	6,200
	Dancing Man	Proof	None	.999 Gold	Commemorative Gold Set	629
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	AlBr	2006 Error Proof Set	40

2004 brought another influx of standard Mob of Roos into circulation. Not since 2000 had we seen a circulation release of the Stuart Devlin design. The theme for the 2004 year sets was "Come Alive" in which the proof set dollar was released with a holographic Mob of Roos coin. This was the first year since 1990 that all standard coins were featured in the year sets (no comemmoratives) hence the "coming alive" of the iconic designs of the Aussie currency. The mintmark coin for 2004 was the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade. This series was launched at the Eureka Centre in Ballarat, Victoria on February 27th 2004. This was the first year in which an "E" mintmark was released on a coin.

Year	Description	Type	Mint Mark	Composition	Notes	Mintage
2004	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Circulation	8,800,000
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	C	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	70,913
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	C	AlBr	RAM Gallery Press	unknown
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	S	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	35,483
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	S shallow	AlBr	Portable Press Sydney Royal Easter Show	9,615
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	B	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	32,142
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	B shallow	AlBr	Portable Press Brisbane ANDA Show	1,693
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	M	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	28,342
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	M shallow	AlBr	Portable Press Royal Melbourne Show	9,184
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	E	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	89,276
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	E shallow	Al Br	Portable Press at Eureka Centre, Ballarat	6,672
	Eureka Stockade	Circulation	E shallow	AlBr	Portable Press struck VIP folder	approx 50
	Eureka Stockade	Proof	None	.999 Silver	Silver Proof Interrupted Reeding	17,697
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Koala Baby Mint Set	31,036
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Mint Set	67,795
	Mob of Roos	Coloured Proof	None	Al Br	Proof Set	50,000
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	Al Br	Koala Baby Proof Set	16,000
	Mob of Roos	Specimen	None	AlBr	Wedding Set	3,963
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	.999 Silver	Fine Silver Year Set	6,500