Other Coins That Turn Up In Aussie Change

I keep all of the foreign coins I come across noodling. Its an easy inexpensive way to check out other coins. I also find quite a few sixpences in the 5c and have found a couple florins in 20c bags.

Not in terms of scarce dates or silver content, no, unless the dime (which I assume is American) is pre-1965.

I'm not sure what your "India 5c" coin is, either; India doesn't have cents. I presume it's a 5 rupees.


I wouldn't recommend going out and spending them, or mixing them up in bank bags. Any foreign coin I receive I either keep it (if I don't already have one of that date/mintmark), or toss it into a bag with other coins from that country (if the coin is still current, in the event that family/friends might travel to visit there) or toss it into a big box of mixed world coins for eventual sale.

I wouldn't suggest trying to fool a vending machine, either. The Fijian coins, if modern, are plated steel and will either be rejected or jam up the machine.

i had a netherlands ! what ever it was, turn up as change in place of 5 cents, well I only made the one purchase that day and it was in my pocket that evening

Every time I sit down to noodle some coins,say $60 of Twenty Cents,I get at least 2-3 New Zealand coins,same with 5 cent pieces.

every second roll of 5c has a NZ 5c in it for me.

I also keep all foreign coins I find noodling. Would not even consider putting them back into the pond / wild...
Fiji 50c was my find today.

The problem a 10 shilling star note caused.
Almost 50 years ago I was given a 10 shilling star note for scoring my first ever goal at footie. As I knew the note was different to a normal ten shilling note I called my Uncle Leo who I knew was a coin collector and asked him if it was worth anything. He told me it may be in a few years so I decided that was way too long to wait.

Along with 3 of my 10 year old mates we set off to the corner store, yes in those days there was one in just about every local area, we bought 5 shillings worth of bungers, mostly tuppenny and a few penny bungers. These crackers were definitely the start of my troubles.

We rushed back to my parents place and decided to try something new. This was the start of my troubles. I asked mum if she had an empty "IXL" jam tin, she wanted to know why so I told her it was to put snails we collected in, luckily there was one. Unfortunately I forgot to tell her what we were going to do next. We collected as many snails from the garden as we could find and placed one of the tupany bungers in the centre of the tin and carefully placed the snails all around it to hold the bunger in the centre to ensure the tin flew directly vertical. We were pretty cluie little buggers.

I inverted the tin and lit the wick and we all stood back a good 10 foot or so, covered our ears and waited. Kaboom and the tin took off straight up 40 foot at least. We whooped and hollered as our IED worked great. Problem was it shook all the neighbours windows, set the chooks off, and scared the bejesus out of the dog. Mum come bolting out of the back door to find us all rolling around on the ground laughing our heads off, covered from head to foot in snail gizzards. Boy I copped it ! Things were definately different in those days !

And now the moral to the story, if you ever get something different in change or anywhere else for that matter, save it.

A ten shilling star note is going on e-Bay now for $1200, and it may save you kicking yourself later.