First Taste Of Decimal Coinage

On behalf of my fellow Aussies, we're glad you like them.


Since the cost of making these coins is hovering around the actual face value, it probably won't be too many years until we do what New Zealand did a couple of years ago and reduce the size and/or change the composition of the denominations, and probably eliminate the 5¢ coin at the same time.


Unlike the United States, where many collectors seem to collect or focus on just one denomination or type, most collectors here in Australia collect them all at once. Decimal coins have only been around since 1966, and there are very few "hard-to-find" dates in each of the denominations. There's also much less variety, as far as mintmarks are concerned.

All the best with your new collecting interest; there are plenty of locals here on the forum to help you out.

I like Euro coins for the same reason. Then again, both the Euro
and the Aussie Decimals are recent (compared to US designs), and
superseded the entire series of their predecessors.

The sizes of US coins made more sense in the 1800's, there was a
logical size progression from the Half-Dime to the Dollar.

We now have in circulation a 1¢ size from 1857, a 5¢ size from 1883,
10¢ and 25¢ sizes from 1837, and a $1 coin size from 1979.