Anyone Think Australia Might Change It's Coins?

True, but it is by far the largest part. Non-material cost of production is typically less than a cent each for small round coins, to a few cents each for the large, funky-shaped 50 cents.


For the foreseeable future, yes I would agree. But just because you and I have trouble imagining a situation where the queen is removed from the coinage without us formally becoming a republic, doesn't mean it will never happen. Stranger things have happened in Australian politics.

Imagine this hypothetical scenario: republican sentiment running high in two or three of the larger states, but low in the rest. A referendum for a republic could get a clear overall majority vote, yet still fail to secure the required majority of states. Under such circumstances, a federal government might feel justified in going with the apparent anti-monarchy majority opinion and remove the monarch from the coinage.

I mainly raised the point to illustrate that "Australia becoming a republic" and "removing the queen from the coinage" are in fact two separate issues - we can in theory do one without doing the other. We could, in theory, even do what Fiji did: become a republic but keep the queen on the coinage.