A Coin Designed To Be Given, Not Collected

@coaster - sitting down with a glass of wine after work when I read your request. Well, how could I refuse...


There may be a few more in the $500 bag (shiny 2009 dollar and a coin hunt S got in the way).

BTW - I will be blaming you Coaster if come Monday morning when I'm heading to work there is still a bunch of foreign coins sitting on the dining table...

@coaster - The bank was CBA although I spoke to a previous employee at a different CBA branch who indicated that Westpac was the "unofficial" distributor for new coins. Pinch of salt maybe... Funny enough, I don't think there are any donation coins in the second bag of 500 coins. The plot thickens...
Hopefully they'll migrate back south to the GC. Where on the GC are you situated? Growing up I spent a lot of time at my grand parents place in the Isle of Capri. The GC doesn't seem to be as good as it was 30-40 years ago but I might have some rose tinted glasses on!!

David, nice finds.
I need an "S" coin too, to complete another set.
If you get too many of the donation dollars, we can trade
some of those for some QANTAS dollars.
If the foreign coins are a problem you can send them my way, I'll sort them for you.

Steve :)

I'm on the southern end of the Gold Coast near Palm Beach and it's definitely still a great place to live ... beautiful beaches on one side and the hinterland on the other!

Ha, was just down there a few weeks ago picking up some bulk coins. Did some metal detecting (unsuccessful) on the Burleigh Beach and later scored some dollars in a park. It is a nice area, not too built up. I also remember going to Tugun in the early 90s and seeng the fibro surf shacks like it was stuck in the 60s/70s. I guess it's been developed somewhat now.

I wonder whether the "real" plan is for the mint, knowing that all of the donation coins would be gobbled up by collectors (never to surface again in circulation), to distribute the coins purely for their own profit.

Common sense tells me that ANY coin worth more than face value to collectors will never be freely donated, (Except for a few, before the non-collectors realize their value).

I take it back - I do not wonder - I am certain of it!

1. The Mint generally makes the suggestions. There are guidelines from government regarding what can and cannot be commemorated (eg. "no anniversaries of deaths" and "all coins must have the Queen's portrait") and the composition of coins, both NCLT and circulating, is outlined under the Currency Act. For NCLT coins, the designs originate entirely in the mint's marketing department.

2. A parliamentary committee discusses and ratifies new coin designs. Treasury then authorizes coin design and the quantity of issue. If Treasury does not agree with a design proposal from the mint, then the mint either scraps the idea or (more likely for NCLT) goes to a foreign "flag-of-convenience" government to rubber-stamp the authorization of the mint's "coins". This is why so many Australian-themed coins are struck in the name of Tuvalu.

3. In theory, the approval process is the same, as under law, NCLT is identical to circulating coinage.

4. Perth Mint issues bulk bullion coins, the RAM issues circulation coinage. Both mints issue NCLT, and are effectively competitors with each other for NCLT sales. As the marketing departments of the two mints are separate and don't talk to each other, it's not uncommon for the two mints to issue two completely separate NCLT coinages for the same event.

5. Not quite sure what you mean here. The mint pays all costs for coinage production, including labour, supply of blanks, and die preparation. Treasury must purchase the coins for face value, in order for the coins to be officially "issued", for circulating coins, the profit between the cost of making a coin and its face value is the "seigniorage", which is profit that is ultimately returned to the Treasury. NCLT coins get "sold back" for face value to the mint's gift shops for sale at far above melt value, thus recouping the rather large loss incurred on the production of a bullion coin with a tiny nominal face value. This profit, too, eventually returns to general revenue.

6. The Mint gift shops get to charge whatever the marketing department thinks they can get away with.

7. I assume you're talking circulation coinage here. The Reserve Bank orders coins from Treasury on behalf of the banks, and the coins are despatched to the banks via armoured car companies. When the armoured cars deliver to a bank branch, the coins might be re-circulated coins sourced from banks or newly minted coins from the Mint depends on the degree of circulation patterns in the area in question. Banks in shopping malls tend to give out lots of coinage, for example, as the mall tenants go to the bank requesting change for their customers. Branches in the city and in the suburbs tend to be more depositories of coins.