There were two coins minted for the Australian Open Tennis in 2012. One features the men's trophy and one the women's trophy. They are very similar coins and if seen apart it might be difficult to differentiate which coin is which. Hence the reason for the above image of both coins side by side to help determine which coin is which.

The silhouette on the women's coin is of the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup (right). This cup is tall and slender with a wreath and crossed tennis racquets on the top with fine handles.

The silhouette on the men's coin is of the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup (left). A more solid shorter fatter cup with strong handles.

When viewing the coins side by side it's easy to see the differences in both designs by the RAM's Wojciech Pietranik.

New designs we are likely to see:

1. The most interesting inclusion in this currency determination is a circulating commemorative coloured $2 coin. This would be the first circulating coloured coin and the first commemorative $2 coin if this coin comes to fruition.

2. Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Australian Ballet. Two NCLT 50c coins one cupro-nickel and one in silver proof. The reverse design includes 2 ballet dancers performing by designer Aaron Baggio.

3. Wheat Sheaf $1 with a Canberra Bluebell counterstamp to be struck for the Canberra Festival ENLIGHTEN on the mobile coin press. The Royal Bluebell is the floral emblem of the ACT.

4. Titled "Australian Decimal Effigiies" is this one dollar the first in a series? The proposed $1 reminisces the Arnold Machin portait used from 1966 to 1984 of Queen Elizabeth II on the reverse with the 2012 Ian Rank-Broadley portrait also of QEII on the obverse. Is this a double headed coin! This 25mm coin is to be struck in fine silver in gem unc and proof finish.

5. $5 silver proof coloured coin featuring the constellation Crux in a field of stars superimposed over a representation of a compass.

6. $5 in a bronze antique finish composed of aluminium zinc and bronze with a design of the Perth Town Hall.

The theme is Remembrance Day so it seems we won't see this release until later in the year. The reverse design repeating "REMEMBRANCE DAY" in 11 rows with a central circle of "LEST WE FORGET". The design including a coloured representation of a poppy flower in the foreground and 2 other representations of poppy flowers inscribed "2 DOLLARS" and REMEMBRANCE". The obverse the standard Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of the Queen with "AUSTRALIA" and "2012".

Specifications of this coin appear identical to our Aboriginal Elder standard $2 composed of copper, aluminium and nickel and weighing 6.6g with a diameter of 20.62mm. The explanatory statement also reads "Circulating Coin".

Could this be our first coloured circulating commemorative $2 coin design or shall I awaken shortly from a dream? The Canadians have done it before, is this Australia's turn?

Each NCLT aluminium bronze one dollar was auctioned by Tennis Australia with the proceeds donated to the Australian Tennis Foundation. These coins, sold on eBay fetched $3,051 for the men's coin and $837 for the women's.

Released in tandem with the Fields of Gold Australian Wheat $1 this 20c simply depicts an ear of wheat. The single stalk a little different to what we know as the wheat sheaf threepence which has been reissued this year as another one dollar coin. All these issues give recognition to the Australian wheat industry in 2012.

The coin shown above is 20c denomination and was designed by Wojciech Pietranik. The legends read "Fields of Gold Australian Wheat" which is surrounded by rim beads of tiny wheat heads. A very simple design with lots of bare open fields on the coin. Wojciech's initials WP can be seen below the 20 to the left of the stalk.

The obverse or the heads side of the coin depicts Queen Elizabeth II portrayed by Ian Rank-Broadley. His initials can be seen at the base of the portrait. The 20c is 28.52mm in diameter and weighs 11.3 grams. It is made of cupro-nickel and has continuous edge milling. It has been released in uncirculated and proof quality in special 2 coin sets, this is the only way to obtain these coins.

The Australian Open Tennis is one of four grand slam events which includes Wimbledon, the French Open and the US open. It's the only grand slam held in the southern hemisphere. 2012 marks the 100th Australian Tournament played and in celebration of this the Royal Australian Mint has released two legal tender one dollar coins each depicting the winners trophies. The first is of the Men's Trophy and this coin of the Women's Trophy.

The reverse design is by the RAM's Wojciech Pietranik and features a silhouette of the winners trophy, the Daphne Akhurst Cup outlined by swirls and a small tennis ball with a player inside "Australian Open 2012 One Dollar". The obverse is by Ian Rank-Broadley and is the standard QEII effigy used on all Australian legal tender issued in 2012.

This one dollar coin is issued as NCLT or non-circulating legal tender and is not meant for circulation but does bear all the features of a circulating coin. It is 25mm in diameter and weigns 9 grams and is manufactured on an aluminium bronze planchet. It has interrupted edge milling.

Released in a capsule which snaps into a foldable collector card for $15 the mintage can be found in the 2012 One Dollar Issues and Mintages Table.

Tennis is a major event for many Aussies parked in front of the television during the seering Australian summer heat. The Australian Open tournament is played in Melbourne and is one of four global grand slam events, the only one played in the southern hemisphere. Competitors play for $26 million in prize money.

To celebrate the 2012 competition, the hundredth men's singles championship held since 1905, two Australian legal tender one dollar coins have been released by the Royal Australian Mint. Each features the winners trophies, one women's and one men's. That's right, there are 2 aluminium bronze $1 coins in this series which look very similar.

One of these coins can be seen above, the design bearing a likeness of the men's trophy the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup. Comparing each design it is shorter and wider than the women's coin. Swirls around the trophy and a small tennis ball with a player inside complete the design "Australian Open 2012". This reverse is by the RAM's Wojciech Pietranik with the obverse is by Ian Rank-Broadley depicting Queen Elizabeth II. It measures 25mm with interrupted edge milling and weighs 9 grams and is the standard aluminium bronze composition of dollar coins you find in change. This coin has, however, only been issued only as NCLT.

Issued in a foldable collectable card for $15 the mintage can be found in the 2012 One Dollar Issues and Mintages Table.

To value a paper note first you must identify the famous Australians portrayed and the signatures the note bears. The signatures belong to the Secretary to the Treasury and the Governor and these appear on the note. These features will help you determine the notes year of issue. Secondly the serial number is important in determining where your note falls in the run or manufacturing sequence of the notes. First and last prefix notes are often more collectable and command a premium to general prefix notes. The prefix is the first 2 or 3 letters in the notes serial number. If the serial number has a star it is very valuable indeed -these are replacement notes and command a large premium.

Example:
NAA First prefix
NAB to NCR General Prefix
NCS Last Prefix

Condition of your Australian note is of utmost importance and greatly affects it's value. A folded note or one kept in your wallet for years will never be worth as much as a flat crisp uncirculated banknote. Even a teller flick on a bundle of notes can devalue the note rendering it aUnc. And most certainly a paper note with the corners eaten off by cockroaches will have a lesser value.

To work out if your paper note has any value over the face value of the note then pick up a copy of an Australian coin catalogue, ask someone with some banknote knowledge or take it to your local coin and banknote dealer.

Above you can see the cover of "Os Recunhos de 960 réis" or "The 960 réis Overstrikes" by David André Levy. David is a 34 year old Brazilian with a passion for collecting the uniquely Brazilian coin, the 960R overstrike. These coins were struck in Brazil at the behest of the Portuguese royal family in exile from 1809 through to about 1830. They were unique in that almost the entire coinage was struck over existing Spanish colonial 8 reale (Spanish dollar) sized coins. Millions of the 960R coins were struck in the 20 years of manufacture and the variation of host coin types has lead to very rare combinations of host coin and 960R year and mint.

David's book aims to be both a catalog of the 960R and a historical record of Brazil during the time it was made. It is now available in the second edition, with the first being published in 2002 and the second edition (seen above) available in 2009. Both are very limited editions (just 500 or so copies) and required reading for anyone who is interested in the 960R series. The second edition of the book is still available for sale on Ebay by the author himself.

"The 960 reis Overstrikes" comprises 13 chapters with each focussing on a different host coin country of origin. As you'd expect the biggest chapter examines the host coins of Mexico with other Spanish colonial countries such as Peru and Bolivia prominent. Other countries that commonly supplied the host coins for the 960R are Guatemala and Chile. One particularly interesting chapter is entitled "Rare Coins" and looks at very scarce host coins such has Bank Dollars from Great Britain, English crowns of William III, and coins struck of over United States silver dollars.

The content of the book is well laid out, and interestingly, is bi-lingual, with the left column of each page in Portuguese and the right in English. Easily understood tables describe the mintages of rarer issues and each chapter is concluded with a price guide for various 960R dates and mints along with host coins. Chapters are generously illustrated with black and white photographs of coins and there are hundreds of images through the 204 pages. A small quibble (that David acknowledges in the book) is that the images are quite small and the detail that the text describes is often not obvious in the image; it would have been nice to have a few full page colour images throughout the book.

"The 960 réis Overstrikes" by David André Levy is a welcome addition to the library of the specialist 960R collector. It's equally interesting to anyone who collects Spanish colonial coinage. Even the numismatist who is interested in world coinage of the 19th Century would do well to own this book because it contains such a wealth of both numismatic and historical information. Highly recommended.

Last years Perth ANDA saw a similar situation where some counterstamps were pre-struck but this was simply a timing and organisational issue as it was not thought possible to strike the entire allocation within the 2 days of the show. They did take the portable press in 2011 and you could still strike your own counterstamp if you wished.

This is particularly bad timing for the 2012 Perth ANDA as it is a real show attraction to have the thrill of striking your own stamp onto your coin.

A beautiful sunny 1st of January 2012 and we're told the sunburn was free. Dedicated collectors were at the front of the queue to be the first to strike the new 2012 Wheat Sheaf C mintmark dollar coins on the gallery presses at the Royal Australian Mint. There wasn't a rush to be in the first 100 as our roving correspondents wandered up at 9:40am for a 10am opening of the RAM. It was a very relaxed atmosphere, they achieved around 60th in the lineup. Peter Russo from Brisbane had camped at the front door of the RAM from 9am the previous Friday to receive the framed certificate (for No. 1) and strike the first Wheat Sheaf C mintmark one dollar coin for 2012 . His collector friend should be very proud of the efforts he went to secure this coin and certificate for his mate. Security was on hand to monitor potential queue jumpers which had been a problem last year.

The First Coin For 2012

The first 100 visitors to the Mint received a numbered certificate, minted the first coins of 2012 and received a calico goody bag from RAM staff which included the Mint Issue magazine, Mint mints, bottled water and a white cotton glove. Among the dedicated was Australia's youngest collector, the 6 year old boy as cute as a button and battling brain cancer. He was the only collector who had their wheat sheaf coin folder signed by CEO Ross MacDiarmid. There are 2 gallery presses and odds (in entry line order) went to one press and evens lined up at the other to strike a maximum of 3 coins each.

Thanks to Robyn McCormack our ACT Coin Club Correspondent for battling the crowd to bring this information to the Australian Coin Collecting Blog.

Gallery Press

The British Virgin Islands (BVI), also known as the Virgin Islands are a group of more than 50 islands found in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The BVI are an overseas territory of the United Kingdom and the major islands of the territory include Tortola, Jost van Dyke, and Virgin Gorda. First sighted by Europeans in 1493 the BVI were captured from the Dutch in 1672 and were administered by the English until 1967, either independently via a local governor or as part of the British Leeward Islands or St. Kitts and Nevis. The islands became independent in 1967 and have been self-governing ever since. However as a British Overseas Territory the UK is still responsible for the defence of the BVI.

As with most British Colonies (including Australia) in the 18th and 19th centuries a key problem with local commerce was maintaining an adequate supply of coinage for local trade. The BVI was no different, with coinage continually being removed from the colony as traders brought in much needed goods and chattels. Being close to the Spanish colonies of the New World the trade coin of choice was the Spanish colonial 8 reale (or Spanish dollar), and cutting the coins to provide small change was prevalent. In 1798 the 8 reale was valued at -/8/3 in the BVI (about 60% above the normally accepted face value) but this did not stop the coin being removed from the colony.

The Coinage Act of 1801

As an attempted solution to this the local administration of the BVI passed an act in 1801 to create a local currency by mutilating or countermarking commonly traded coins found in the colony. The Act allowed for the local currency to trade until 1802 anticipating that that a sufficient supply of British sterling would be available by then. However this did not eventuate and an amendment was made to extend this to 1805. Denominations included in the act were:

• Cut half dollar countermarked with Tortola - valued at -/4/1/1
• Cut quarter dollar countermarked with Tortola - valued at -/2/-/-
• Cut eight dollar countermarked with Tortola - valued at -/1/-/-
• A Bitt - cut half pistareen (2 reales) countermarked with Tortola - valued at -/-/9/-
• Half Bitt - cut quarter pistareen (2 reales) no countermark - valued at -/-/4/1
• "Black Dog" - French 2 Sous countermarked with T - valued at -/-/1/1

The Second Coinage 1805-1824

The year 1805 came and went and still there was no supply of British sterling coinage and the local government was running out of currency to run the colony. To remedy this the colonial administrators commissioned a second countermarked coinage that was made periodically from 1805 through to 1824. These later issues are characterized by much cruder countermarks and a mis-spelling of Tortola to TIRTILA. It is interesting to note that it was not until 1892 that there was sufficient sterling in the BVI for the countermarked coinage of the islands to finally be de-monetized.

Multiple Countermarked Coins

An unusual aspect of the Act passed in 1801 was that there was no minimum weight specified for any of the cut coins. Because of this the BVI happily made use of the cut and countermarked coinage of other colonial islands in the Caribbean by simply stamping them with their own marks. These multiple countermarked coins are more commonly found with the countermarks of the second and cruder coinage period of 1805-1824.

Collectors lined up through the night to be the first visitors to the Royal Australian Mint on 1 January 2012. These die hard collectors were the first to press a C mintmark onto the 2012 one dollar reissue of the Australian threepence design by George Kruger Gray.

This design adorned the tiny 16mm pre-decimal threepence from 1938 to 1964. Originally in sterling silver it was debased to 50% silver for coins struck after 1946. The threepence weighs in at 1.41g and at decimal changeover in 1966 converted to just 3 cents.

Designer George Edward Kruger was born in 1880 and interestingly took his wife's surname of Gray when he married. He died in 1943. He was an English artist designing the Shilling Ram reverse used last year on the mintmark dollar coin. He also designed the florin reverse used from 1938 and the florin commemoratives of 1927 parliament, 1934/5 Melbourne centenary and the 1937 and 1938 crown.

This years new mintmark dollar bears the same threepence design of the 3 wheat stalks and ribbon. The date, denomination, size, weight, obverse and composition however differ greatly. A much larger 25mm one dollar struck on an aluminium bronze planchet. This design will feature on all the mintmarked, counterstamped and privy marked dollars from the RAM this year and is also issued in silver proof. If you're a visitor to the Mint during Enlighten in March then you may also come home with a Canberra Bluebell Mintmark on your C mm wheat sheaf $1. If you can't make it to the RAM today for your C mintmark dollar, then don't panic, you have all year at the gallery presses in the Mint Shop.

Complementing this coin in 2012 is the Australian Wheat Fields of Gold one dollar also depicting sheaves of wheat.

I began what ended up becoming a mammoth task to build a timeline of the round Australian 50c piece and to delve into the why, where and how we came about having a copper nickel 12 sided half dollar. Australia started the decimal era with a round coin of 80% silver with the Australian Coat of Arms designed by Stuart Devlin. It was C-Day on February 14th 1966 and it was out with the florins and shillings and in with new decimal currency. Most of the pre-decimal coins were easily interchangeable with the new coins but the 50c was something different equalling two florins and a shilling or 5/- and Australia had not seen a circulating 5/- coin since 1938. A florin and a 20c were interchangeable (although early vending and counting machines struggled with the difference) but this new 50c was a novelty. Lower denominations (5c, 10, and 20c) were made from cupro-nickel but 3 of the new 50c equalled a whole ounce of silver.

Striking of the round 50c began in late November 1965 at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra. Mint Controller J M Henderson said "over three thousand dies were used" to produce the number of 50c needed. There were 12.5 million 50c coins ready for Decimal Changeover Day that had been distributed to banks via Operation Fastbuck, but from the very first day they were difficult to find. The Reserve Bank only let a few into circulation to combat souveniring, but the public liked the 20c coin and didn't see a real need for the 50c. There was already talk among collectors about the possible rise in the value of the precious metal silver and the effect this would have on the bullion value of the silver 50c.

Treasurer McMahon detailed just a few months into the changeover that the first production run of the round 50c was limited to 19 million coins, this would test the public reaction and that at this time runs of the 1c and 2c were more of a priority for the Mint. The total mintage of the round 50c concluded at 36.5 million coins (Decimal Currency Board Annual Report 1966-67).

By the end of 1966 it was being published that many other countries had abandoned (or were in the process of abandoning) silver content in their circulation coinage in favour of nickel. It was cheaper and had superior wear characteristics. Public outcry was that the round 50c was too easily confused with the 20c. "Apart from the initial novelty no one likes the round 50c".

August 1967 and an official proclamation under the currency act of 1965 repealed a section of the act which allowed both types of currency to be traded and all matters relating to money now had to be in dollars and cents. The round silver 50c is becoming quite scarce and news of the time reports that silver is becoming the most hoarded of all commodities! No 1967 50c coins are being minted.

Early 1968 and it seemed quite certain that Australia wouldn't see the 50c in it's present form again, but no official statement had been made. Silver had topped at $1.71 per fine ounce which resulted in the 1966 50c being worth 57c! The Mint had suspended it's minting of the round 50c but had denied this was a prelude to a coin with a lower silver content. The Mint simply said that there were enough 50c in circulation although they still seemed few and far between -according to the public. Some were even of two minds that we even needed a 50c coin.

It didn't take the Government long and by July 1968 the round 50c was being withdrawn. Stuart Devlin was consulted to redesign his round Coat of Arms reverse ever so slightly for a new coin more fitting to what Australia needed. Treasurer William McMahon confirmed this in January 1969 when he said "A decision was taken in April last to discontinue the minting of the Australian 50c coin in it's original form of 80% silver and 20% copper". The RAM in Canberra had been experimenting with various alternative alloys and shapes for a new 50c which might prove more acceptable to the public. The government has now decided to mint a 12 sided version in copper nickel.

26th August 1969 Treasurer McMahon, in Australian Parliament announced that the Mint had begun delivering the new 12 sided coins to the Reserve Bank. The first delivery was 1 million coins with production at 2 million coins per week until they were back in change and demand was satisfied. A special run of specimen coins was produced for Nuphil which were included in the Yarralumla PNC postmarked 1 September 1969, a private issue now highly sought by collectors.

By this time collectors and the Australian public were quite disinterested in the issue and were more excited about the pending issue of the Captain Cook commemorative 50c in 1970. Australia's first commemorative since the 1954 florin and the bicentenary of Captain Cooks voyage was well received -although some would say it should have been a dollar. This is the foundation of the popularity of the commemorative 50c and $1 issues of today.