Australian Coin To Watch

It is a silver dollar replicating (or commemorating) Austrailia's first gold half sovereign. It is absolutely striking (no pun intended), struck in silver and the gold half sovereign is plated in gold (center of the large 50MM coin) so that it actually looks like a half sovereign floating in the center of proof silver with an outer band of matte silver surrounding that! The 2005 silver dollar will also mark 150 years of the Sydney Mint. Check it out at Downies Ltd website. Thanks for pointing out that Downies will be the official distributor here in the states and YOUR order must be placed by the 20th. See https://www.downies.com The Royal Australian Mint website shows an international price of $72 if I remember correctly so Downies would be the prefered place to order.

Downies does a good job supplying Australian Coins at a reasonable price.
BUT
Since they are a private house representing the Mint, sometimes they go a bit too far.

They have in the past taken some coins and sent them to the UK to have them colorized. When the Mint found out they had a fit and declared the coins Not legal Tender and had Downies return them.
(Silly because once a coins is legal tender it should always be legal tender)imho
There are still some floating around on ebay. (I have one)
I always check new offerings against the mint site to check the correctness of the coin ( even so the colorized coin I now have is worth more as a collectors item than as a normal part of a set.)


I have had nothing but GREAT experiences with Downies and their staff.

Of course I bought it but some feed back to be considered
Taken from the Aussie coin forum
Looks like this coin belongs in the $10 series with the $10 2002 Adelaide Pound and $10 2003 Sydney Pattern. But this one is a $1 coin and is the 2005 Subscription coin.

it should have been part of the $10 series
Just some history.
There was a Pattern 1853 Half Sovereign as there was a Pattern 1853 Sovereign. These pattern pieces were produced in England. From reading the brochure this coin commemorates the 150th anniversary of these two coins to be actually minted in Australia from Australian gold.

To quote the box of the 2003 $10 issue "This fine bi-metal proof $10 coin commemorates the 150th anniversary of the design and minting of the Pattern design for the first Sydney Mint sovereigns"

A very fine point of difference between the 2003 - $10 commemorative of the 1853 Sovereign
and the 2005 - $1 commemorative of the 1855 Half Sovereign.

We seem to be commemorating nearly the same event, two years later.

In another two years time, 2007, I now expect that we will have a 150th anniversary of the 1857 portrait change of Queen Victoria.

Another point. This is a Subscription dollar, which is suppose to limit the mintage by subscription. Although we did witness, last year hundreds being returned to the mint for sale later in the year. The Mintages usually range from 13,328 to 21,791 for Subscription dollars.

Book value on these coins have all increased over issue price, BUT anyone who visits ebay knows that you can get any one of this series for less than Book Value and most less than Issue price.

The Similiar 2003 $10 Sydney Mint coin, with a limited mintage of 10,000 has just managed to hold it's Issue price on ebay. Of course Book Value is higher.
You can pick up the 2003 and 2004 versions of the 'subscription' coin on ebay for below issue price. I suspect this one will go the same way even though it is a better coin. It seems evident that the Royal Australian Mint’s policy change in making this 'subscription' coin available to and through dealers effectively killed off any premium these coins might otherwise have had.

Received MY my HUGE coin today! And, must say I am very impressed with the craftsman ship from the Austrailian Mint. Final figures for this On Demand Issue was 11,845 (if I remember correctly). The coin has great eye appeal and due to its huge size (50MM) it is just stunning lying there looking up at you. These will be in this household for years to come! Will try to post a photo if my wife will ever take the time to train me!

Silly me I ended up with TWO of them
One for each eye to look at I suppose

G'day Greg!
Welcome.
Even though rggoodie lives on the opposite side of the dateline, he's an aussie expat. We have a few Australian collectors on the board and would enjoy your input as well.
Don

Welcome Greg, Great to have another Aussie and a darksider on board! Actually we have two of the commemoratives here as well but my wife won't let me lay claim to hers!!! You know the old saying, Whats mine is hers and whats hers is hers! Seems to work out that way at times. If there is any way I can help you out with any coin needs, feel free to email as I trade all over Europe and have bought a few items from Austrialia as well! Guess I am trying to help all the economies in the world the best I can. Look forward to hearing from you!