1966 Round 50 Cent

I've never seen those before. Onviously a forerunner to the 'modern' PNC. Can't help with a value, I hope someone else can give you some info. Maybe Bigfella will see this & offer his opinion.

I think I have seen those on ebay...... And they go for ALOT.... I think one of those goes for around 50-60.... I'm not sure... Look it up on ebay completed listings.... If you can find the right keyword.... But if I'm not wrong, they go for more than in those sets.. :)

As to the Double bar/ Non Double bar on 1966 50 cent, Remnants are displayed on all coins to varying degrees, and none are complete like on the 79 and 80 50 cents.

It was an intentional part of the design, that was considered to cause a weak spot on the die, so the technicians removed them, just not very well.

Just a word of caution, because selling 66 50 cent as Double Bar, is generally frowned upon.
Remnants can also be found on all other COA reverse 50 cent, the more you look the more you find, with some well documented cases such as the 1993.

G'day, quote: "Is there an explanation as to why they minted a circulating decimal coin in 80% silver ..."

- 1966 was strange times, and the whole process of decimalization resulted in difficult-to-comrehend decisions. The supreme one being, how did we end up with a "dollar" ? It would have been a great time to adopt a name which was unique and local.
As to your specific question: thanks for drawing my attention to another anomaly. Something for conversation during half-time at the footy ...
Peter

And changed shape.

Actually that was 3 years later. None issued for 1967 and 1968.

G'day,
quote: "they tend to sell in VF-XF at metal value ..."
I remember them coming out when I was a kid: they were all put aside within 6 months. There are heaps of them in genuine "near unc" grade, and the rest are NOT* much the worse for wear.
Peter

[*edited to add NOT]

They presumably made the 50¢ silver rather than cupronickel because the 50¢ had no predecimal analogue, except for the crown (which had only been issued briefly, 30 years previously). Te new 50¢ was a lot smaller than a crown. So they probably felt they needed to give public confidence in this particular new coin a boost, by giving it some real intrinsic value.

Making the "flagship coin" silver while making all the smaller "silver" coins of base metal had been done elsewhere, too. The USA, France and Germany all did the same.

So why 80% rather than 50%? Well, why not? The mint had probably received feedback that the 50% silver alloy (used since the end of WWII) didn't "wear" too well, having a tendency to look coppery or turn green after a while in circulation. 80% silver is high enough fineness to stay "silvery", a fact they'd probably picked up from their South African colleagues, who had been using the 80% alloy since Union coinage commenced in 1923.

Australia may have been thinking about switching to the 80% alloy for some time prior to decimalization. A unique trial specimen of a 1959 "silver penny" resides in the RAM Collection. Made of 80% silver and roughly the same size as a round 50¢, it was presumably struck to give the mint and their Treasury bosses a sample to demonstrate the qualities of that particular alloy.

very true