July 2012 50c And 20c Coin Survey

I believe that the mintage figures for 1993 CoA got mixed up somewhere along the line, and it has continued to be assumed that 1m is correct, and due to the purported '1m low mintage', they've been heavily hoarded so they are now becoming a bit harder to find than they used to be.

Mind you, this is just my opinion, based solely on the numbers that I came across when I was noodling regularly.

Maybe it was the 1985 that mintage figures that got mixed up. This year's McDonalds says the actual mintage of 1993 50c was 982,800, down the figure of 2,217,200 which older catalogues say.

Sorry about that: yes, I have a 2004 McDonald's guide that gives the 1993 50c mintage as 2,217,200. My 2011 Renniks gives the mintage as 2,217,000.

I think it would come down to the point where the RAM figures change from "released into circulation" as opposed to "minted during that year", which brings us to the matter of early 80's 20 cent pieces and melting down of some years.

I'm inclined to take the view that 1985 50's apparent scarcity is due to it being the first year of the Maklouf portrait, thus being readily identifiable, the low mintage figures being released, and the fact that it was the only such CoA released for 8 years, resulting in substantial hoarding.

Interesting theories as to the relative scarcity of the 1985 vs. the 1993.
All I know is the 1993 is 'much' easier to find than the 1985. For instance, I had 800 coins to go through last Friday and found one 1993, and no 1985's

In my experience, the 1985 COA is about as hard to find as the 1991 RAM. OK the RAM is some 4.1 Million as against a purported 1 Million - or slightly less- but RAMS are very difficult to locate. I'd guess the commem designs are kept by a lot of people, and not just coin collectors like us, and the COA's all look the same to a non-collector - therefore a 1985 (or 1993) would not interest a non collector to whom all COA's are just the same.
1985 COA's on ebay always get keen bidding interest, and 1993's often just sell at a low final price.
So too do 2004 pointy A 20c, which I reckon are scarcer than they are given credit for....

100% with ozcoins. RAMs are much easier to find than 1985 and I think the scarcity of the 85 is due to hoarding of the new maklouf obverse when it was released. Big head/pointy A 20c are much harder to find these days. I think it was Jeff who has a strike rate of 1 in every $100 but mine is more like 1 in $300. They're underrated.

Hi nancyc

I have a 13th edition Maccas, and the mintage for 1993 is listed as 2,217,200, so I guess someone noticed something in 2006 about the mintages, so as to put the note and revised mintage figure for the 14th edition.

To enworb and ozcoins, the added difficulty in the pointy A 20 cent is that the rims are very weak, and coins found in circ. are worn more than they should be

I found one last Friday in a $100 machine bag, and it also has a weak rim...

For those of you that have any 'Macca's' Guide from the 13th Edition onwards, the 'footnote' is immediately underneath the 50 cent mintage figures for the dates 1985 - 1997 marked with (a).

It's a small 5 line paragraph.