Again, thanks all!
FNQ's mintage figures don't include the three coin sets (which FNQ points out in their post)
If you include the three coin sets the mintage figures for 1/2oz Lunar I proofs are:
Year Mintage Description
1999 1,697 Year of the Rabbit
2000 3,747 Year of the Dragon
2001 2,023 Year of the Snake
2002 1,810 Year of the Horse
2003 1,028 Year of the Goat
2004 930 Year of the Monkey
2005 900 Year of the Rooster
2006 1,668 Year of the Dog (Golden Retriever)
2007 1,339 Year of the Pig
2008 277 Year of the Mouse
2009 561 Year of the Ox
2010 479 Year of the Tiger
@notcb - Peter, the latest figures from PM say that the mouse was actually 202 + 75 rather than 201 + 75 (previously I also had 201+75 in my database), so looks like there was an extra one that they had missed, making the total 277 (but still the lowest mintage legal tender Australian 50c). And thanks for waiting till I had the set before posing your question!
I ended up getting the three coin sets for the last three, one from the Ukraine and two from Poland, supporting Peter's information that most of the coins in the last three did indeed go into Europe with perhaps Germany as the distribution point. Quite some time ago I also picked up the ox in a slab from the USA (as longer term members may remember this is the only slab that I have not ripped open) from a broken up set, but this may have originated from Europe as well - I guess we will never know for sure, but it doesn't negate Peter's information.
@Mr T,
Perth Mint commenced Lunar Series II in 2008, while Series I had not yet covered all the 12 lunar animals. From what I can tell (all hearsay), PM originally was not going to make the last three coins from series I but faced opposition from collectors wanting to complete sets, so they made the last three all in the one year. With respect to the 1/2oz coins, there were no bullion issues at all for these last three years of Series I (and given PM issues mintage figures for bullion and numismatic coins separately) if you only found the bullion mintage figures as seen here
http://www.perthmint.com.au//docume...d_221112.pdf you would indeed believe that there were no 1/2oz issues in the last three years.
If you ignore all the precious metal issues, the lowest mintage legal tender Australian 50c is the 1969 specimen issue of 2,000 produced for Nuphil for the Yarralumla PNC (Nu-27). 1,330 went to Nuphil, of the remaining 770 some were sold via Mint Shop at face value, with the remainder given out through change at the Mint Shop till. After that, it was the proof sets of '71, '73 and '72 respectively. Then proof sets of '74, '69, '06 and '70 till you come to the first circulation issue which is the 2001 100 yrs of Federation Tasmania CoA issue at a mintage of 15,634.
Including precious metal issues, by my database (which may not be accurate
) there are seventy (yes 70) legal tender Australian 50c with mintage figures less than 10,000.
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Posted 02/26/2013 7:52 pm
