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Instead of taking the portable press to coin events the Royal Australian Mint has opted to pre-strike a silver proof coin for each ANDA (Australian Numismatic Dealers Association) coin show held around the country in 2010.

This coin is a 100 Years of Australian Coinage One dollar struck in 99.99% fine silver proof. Each coin is struck with a special privymark. This particular privymark a letter over a kangaroo inside a square -seen below is an S and M over a kangaroo inside a square. Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, S, B, M and P privymarked coins have been released so far at each event. Mintage is 2,000 coins per show.

As we are in 2010 this table remains incomplete and will be continuously updated throughout the year as new issues are released.

In 2010 the Royal Australian Mint continues with releases of the standard 25mm, 9 gram, aluminium bronze one dollar coin into both circulation and NCLT issues. All releases feature the standard Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II except one, the gold issue this year features the Vladimir Gottwald obverse seen only on the 2000 Royal Visit 50c. There is a release into circulation, a commemorative issue for the Centenary of the Girl Guides. These Girl Guide dollars are also available in commemorative RAM wrappered Rolls.

2010 continued with the idea of differentiating mintmark issues with mintmarks, counterstamps and privymarks. There was however, no counterstamp dollars issued as the RAM didn't take their portable press to any venues in 2010. They even specifically produced each privymark (and C mintmark) in one convenient 4 coin set and show special releases were pre-struck silver proof commemoratives for 100 years of decimal coinage.

Year	Description	Type	Mint Mark	Composition	Notes	Mintage
2010	Centenary of Girl Guiding	Circulation	None	AlBr	Circulation	*
	Centenary of Girl Guiding	Circulation	None	AlBr	RAM Roll	*
	Centenary of Decimal Coinage	Circulation	C mm	AlBr	RAM Gallery Press	*
	Centenary Decimal Coinage	Circulation	C mm	AlBr	PNC	*
	Centenary of Decimal Coinage	Circulation	C mm	AlBr	4 coin unc set	*
	Centenary of Decimal Coinage	Circulation	S privy	AlBr	4 coin unc set	*
	Centenary of Decimal Coinage	Circulation	B privy	AlBr	4 coin unc set	*
	Centenary of Decimal Coinage	Circulation	M privy	AlBr	4 coin unc set	*
	Centenary of Decimal Coinage	Circulation	C mm, S, B & M privy	AlBr	4 coin unc set Brisbane Coin Show Overprint	600
	Centenary of Decimal Coinage	Proof	C mm	.999 Silver	Silver Proof Interrupted Reeding	up to 12,500
	Centenary Decimal Coinage	Proof	S over Kangaroo Privymark	.999 Silver	Sydney ANDA special release	up to 2,000
	Centenary Decimal Coinage	Proof	B over Kangaroo Privymark	.999 Silver	Brisbane ANDA special release	up to 2,000
	Centenary Decimal Coinage	Proof	M over Kangaroo Privymark	.999 Silver	Melbourne ANDA special release	up to 2,000
	Centenary Decimal Coinage	Proof	P over Kangaroo Privymark	.999 Silver	Perth ANDA special release	up to 2,000
	Fred Hollows	Circulation	None	AlBr	RAM and Dealer Sales	*
	Year of the Tiger	Circulation	None	AlBr	Lunar Coin Series	*
	Burke and Wills	Circulation	None	AlBr	2 Coin Unc Set	*
	Burke and Wills	Proof	None	AlBr	2 Coin Proof Set	*
	Dorothy Wall	Circulation	None	AlBr	Blinky Bill Baby Mint Set	*
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	Mint Set	*
	Mob of Roos	Circulation	None	AlBr	World Money Fair Mint Set	2,500
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	AlBr	Proof Set	*
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	AlBr	Blinky Bill Baby Proof Set	*
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	AlBr	Wedding Set	*
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	.999 Silver	Fine Silver Year Set	up to 6,000
	Mob of Roos	Proof	None	.999 Gold	Ram and Dealer Sales	up to 500

Footnotes: * - These are all new issues, mintage numbers will be updated as the most accurate information becomes available.

If you've spent any time at all on one of the many internet coin forums then you'll almost certainly have seen the question 'I am a new coin collector, where should I start?'. There's dozens of tips that people give those new to the hobby, and you're probably well aware of most of them. So, just to change things up a little we thought we'd list off some things that the new coin coin collector shouldn't do when they are just entering the hobby. We'd love to say that we didn't do any of the things we're about to talk about but to be honest, we did most of them, and it's from this basis of hard experience that we speak.

1) Not spending the time learning to grade. Grading is without doubt the single most important skill a coin collector can possess.

2) Buying coins before the books or not spending sufficient time learning the hobby before handing over your money.

3) Diving in an buying a lot of low grade coins without any understanding of grading or what collecting theme the new collector is following.

4) Buying coins off of the internet or from dealers and blindly trusting the seller's grading.

5) Knowingly buying problem coins without realising the ongoing problems these will cause your collection.

6) Unknowingly buying problem coins.

7) Expecting to make money from the hobby immediately, lots of new collectors think it is a money making game rather than a hobby.

8) Improperly storing or handling a new collection. This can wipe much of the value of your collection off in just a few minutes.

9) Spending up big on mint issued NCLT and expecting it to increase in value in the short term. If you enjoy it, collect it, but making making money from NCLT is a tricky business.

All of the above points can impair the profits you'll make from collecting or put a dampener on your thrills in collecting. We get a lot of questions from novice or beginner collectors and even those who have simply found an interesting coin and want to know more about it. If we can set just one person on the right path or give them the tools to make the right choices then we've done a good deed in numismatics today :)

Each year the Royal Australian Mint releases a coin with a mintage decided completely by consumer demand. The coin must be ordered beforehand and only those coins ordered will be minted. This was previously known as the "Subscription coin" for the year but this year was remamed to the "Made to Order Coin". This name change was to reduce customer confusion over the details of the coins' production. Customers needed to order and pay for the coin upfront before it was struck in the numbers only for those who pre-ordered.

This years Made to Order coin celebrates the Centenary of Australian coinage with a total mintage of 4,975 coins. It is a 99.9% fine silver 40mm proof coin with an Australian legal tender value of one dollar. Issue price was $75.

The design was developed in collaboration with the Queensland branch of the Australian Numismatic Society and Royal Australian Mint designer Wojciech Pietranik. It features replications of the first four coin designs, the threepence, sixpence, shilling and florin first minted in 1910.

The obverse features both the current effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley and the original effigy of Edward VII by George W de Saules. The reverse of the Made to Order coin features the Australian Coat of Arms by W H J Blakemore shown on all the first Commonwealth silver coins from 1910.

This coin celebrates those designs originally depicted on our commonwealth coinage different to the other $1 coin released by the RAM this year depicting all four monarchs in profile that have appeared on our coins.

We've recently discussed how new coins are handled and distributed from manufacture at the Royal Australian Mint through processing at the security companies and then delivery to clients such as banks and supermarkets. Based on these processes we're now able to discuss how manufacturing errors might be released into circulation or how they might be caught up in the system.

For bulk circulation coinage once the coins leave the coining press there are no processes for quality control to find any imperfect or error coins before leaving the Royal Australian Mint.

It's up to security companies who handle the bulk coin to "come across" any problem coins in the system. This is much easier with coin rolling machines as any coins of incorrect shape or size are quickly fed into a reject box and the system continues to operate.

With the batcher machine (explained in the previous article) which feeds the coins into bags a mistruck coin will stick onto the rail of the batcher. The machine ceases to run but as the operator opens the door the coin may just run into the small bag because the belt continues to move momentarily. Once the bags are sealed there are no other checks (except for the odd bag that is weight/face value checked) and the coin will happily pass into circulation. Is this how the dramatically double struck $2 coins passed into circulation?

The weights of new coins are a huge headache for security companies. The manual checks of the weights of the bagged new coins can differ dramatically. One dollar coins can often weigh somewhere between 8 and 9 grams when 9 grams should be the exact weight. This can escalate into 60 grams per $100 and then 6-8kg per pallet which is a 6% error rate. Not acceptable when you're talking about money! This is the result of poor quality blank manufacturing procedures at the factory who the RAM buys their coin blanks off, Poongsan in South Korea. We've seen mistakes that have originated from there with a one dollar coin passing through the system into circulation.....struck on a bimetal planchet!

If the problem coins are detected in these processes what happens next? Well if they aren't appropriated by staff or sent back to the RAM then they are sent interstate to a company which refunds the security company the Australian dollar equivalent or the scrap metal equivalent. This company still receives 1c and 2c pieces which are paid approximately double the face value for their copper content.

So it's really looking quite promising that on your next trip to the supermarket you could be heading home with a mistruck coin in your pocket!

Have you evern wondered how our new coinage is distributed after it is manufactured at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra? How does it end up in your purse or wallet?

Newly struck brilliant uncirculated coins leave the presses and accumulate into 44 gallon drums. These drums are manoevered through the mint facility by AGV's (automated guided vehicles) which make light work of coin handling. This is the end of the Mint's involvement with the new circulating coins, they are shipped off in these 44 gallon drums to security companies such as Armaguard.

At the security companies these new coins are loaded into a huge coin hopper. Depending on what denomination is being processed up to 4 of these 44 gallon drums may fit into these huge hoppers. This hopper then trickle feeds the new coins into 6 coin batchers that counts out the specified amounts and then drop them into a small satchel bagger. The small bags drop out the bottom onto an elevator which runs onto a conveyor into a big bagger. The big bagger seals the larger bag of multiple small bags and sends it to the check weigher. These bagged coins will then be opened up and manually counted to check the quantities are accurate. Any weight difference can then be allowed for, or the check weigher adjusted to the accurate weight for this batch of coins. These big bags are then dumped into big bins. This process can produce 300 bigger bags of 25 smaller bags ($100 x 20c bags) in an hour. The majority of new coins are processed this way into sachets. Companies such as Woolworths and Big W require their change to be delivered in sachets and not into rolls anymore. Coles have systems in place favouring rolled coin. So what happens next? Armaguard, Brinks or other security carriers delivers the new coin to their clients such as supermarkets and banks in manageable weights.

$2 = $50
$1 = $20
50c = $10
20c = $4
10c = $4
5c = $2

And what happens to those empty 44 gallon drums now? Well just in case you're interested some are sold to a bio-fuel company to collect waste cooking oil at the back of restaurants and takeaways!

What we now know as the ATO the Australian Tax Office was formed in 1910 beginning as the Land and Tax Office in the Commonwealth Treasury. This department was initially established to fund invalid and old age pensions. 100 years later we reflect on it's achievements with a comemmorative 20c issued by the Royal Australian Mint. The centenary officially occurs on November 11th but with respect to Remembrance Day celebrations will take place on November 12th 2010. A program of events continues throughout 2010 including a book release and also the recognition of Women in the ATO on International Women's Day in March 2010.

Approximately 5 million 20c piece will be released into circulation so expect to find one of these in your change soon. The reverse design "Working for all Australians 100 The Australian Tax Office Centenary 2010 20 cents" was designed in collaboration with the Australian Tax Office and the Royal Australian Mint designers. The obverse is the standard Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

The PNC released by Australia Post is just one release in a series of stamps and first day covers. It features one 60c stamp postmarked in Canberra 2600 on the date of issue July 27th 2010. This PNC is limited to 15,000 and each cover is uniquely numbered. Released for $19.95 this issue will be highly sought.

Released on July 19th 2010 by Australia Post (in partnership with the Royal Australian Mint and the Australian Fromelles Project Group) this PNC features a comemmorative 20c remembering the lost soldiers of Fromelles. The PNC also features a 60c stamp alongside a picture of the statue of the "Cobbers" that the coin also depicts. Postmarked 19th July 2010, the 94th anniversary of the battle this PNC was released for $14.95. The last unknown soldier was buried at the new Fromelles (Pleasant Wood) Cemetary in a dedicated ceremony on that 94th anniversary.

As published in the Australasian Coin and Banknote Magazine August 2010.

Written by the www.australian-thereepence.com/blog team with thanks to John Mulhall for getting it to print!

Lot 401 in Downies Auction 303 held in November 2009 was a double struck 2008 $2 error coin. The lot realised $1550 (plus buyers premium) and was in lovely almost uncirculated condition with the second strike overlaying the first by about 40%. As keen followers of the decimal error market this coin was the first double struck $2 that had become available in at least the last 5 years. We found the error to be remarkable given the scarcity of $2 coin errors, which we've found to be the least common error coin among all denominations in the decimal series. The reason for this isn't really known but possibly the answer lies in the lower mintages of the $2 coin.

To our surprise early this year another double struck 2008 $2 coin appeared on eBay being sold by a coin dealer from Sydney. That coin, graded as extremely fine or perhaps a little better sold for $865. An image of this coin can be seen in Figure 1. This coin was followed just a couple of weeks later by another 2008 double struck coin being sold by a well known Sydney dealer via mail order for $1000. We quickly contacted the dealer interested in purchasing the coin but it had sold in a very short time frame. So interestingly 3 of these double struck coins had appeared on the market in just 4 months!

Fast forward to March 2010 and yet another double struck $2 coin appeared on eBay being sold by the same seller as the first eBay coin. However, this one was a 2009 coin, had two clear dates of 2009 visible and was yet again graded as EF to AU. See Figure 2 for an image of this coin. This coin sold for just a touch over $800 and appears to be the best example sold to date. A 5th and (to date) final double struck $2 was listed by the same eBay seller/dealer in June 2010, this one was a similar grade to all the others and was a bargain for the purchaser, selling for just $455 (see figure 3).

What is a Double Struck Coin?

Double struck coins can take a few different forms, but the most common usually has a second strike that is rotated and off-centre from the first strike by a certain percentage. The double struck $2 coins we've discussed here are all off-centre around 60-70%. They've occurred when a coin is struck and then fails to clear the coining chamber completely before the next strike occurs. This results in a second strike partially obscuring the first. The coin may rotate as it partially exits the press resulting in different parts of the coin design overlaying the first strike. The second strike almost always results in the coin taking on an irregular shape (i.e. no longer round) because it is not constrained by the collar. This would mean that the coin would likely foul coin counting machines and vending machines while still weighing exactly same as a normal coin. From an error collectors point of view double struck coins with two visible dates are the most desirable examples.

Where did the Coins Come From?

We've heard a couple of theories about how these errors reached the collector market. The first is that the coins were 'mint sport' of the type similar to double obverse or double reverse coins minted in the 1970's. According to this theory the coins would have then been spirited from the mint and released onto the market. Upon showing one of the imaged coins to well known numismatists and error experts it was suggested that given the current setup of presses at the RAM and increased security to prevent theft from the mint that this first theory is more or less implausible.

The second (and much more likely theory) is that these errors occurred in the normal production process and were bagged up automatically by the mint's highly automated systems into mint bags before being released to security companies for rolling or bagging and subsequent distribution. We could then postulate that the highly irregular shape of the double struck coins caused them to be rejected by the security companies rolling or counting machines. The errors then somehow escaped the security company and ended up in the hands of a couple of dealers in Sydney. Given that 4 of the 5 coins to date have been sold by Sydney based dealers we can only assume that most of these errors have been sent to security companies in that area.

What Next?

Will any more of these errors appear? Clearly something has changed at the Royal Australian Mint to allow these errors to escape. Whatever has changed, it has only happened in the last year or two as we're aware of no earlier examples than the first two 2008 coins. Perhaps more $2 double strikes will appear and it will be intriguing to see if any other denominations might appear. A double struck $1 coin, for example, would be a holy grail for the authors, two of the keenest decimal error collectors we know!

To follow on from the Mary MacKillop one dollar (2008) and the Steve Irwin one dollar (2009) the Inspirational Australians dollar coin series in 2010 depicts Fred Hollows on an Australian one dollar NCLT collector coin. This series of coins recognises and celebrates individual achievements and commemorates unique Australians who have made an extraordinary contribution to our society.

Released by the Royal Australian Mint the reverse of this coin was designed by Vladimir Gottwald and was inspired by a portrait of Professor Fred Hollows by photographer George Fetting. The design depicts Hollows holding up an intraocular lens used on an Eritrean cataract patient. Fred, a skilled opthalmologist, was the inspiration for the Fred Hollows Foundation which has restored the sight of more than a million people around the world by implanting intraocular lenses into the eyes of cataract patients. His life's work (1929-1993) is continued by the Fred Hollows Foundation restoring sight and good health in those less fortunate countries. Through Fred's vision, the Fred Hollows Foundation helped establish factories in Nepal and Eritrea to produce these special intraocular lenses at cheaper cost. It operates in over 20 countries restoring sight to cataract patients for whom such surgery would normally be out of financial reach.

This encapsulated and uncirculated 25mm, 9 gram aluminium bronze one dollar was released at $12.95 issue price in a special informative card explaining the life and work of Professor Fred Hollows. His wife Gabi Hollows said "Fred would probably tell everyone to buy the coin, but then donate it to The Foundation". Fred was extremely passionate about his cause.

The obverse of this NCLT dollar is the standard effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley. The RAM has set an unlimited mintage for this coin.