Coin/Token/Medal Identification

I think just a bank promotion.
They are gilded (paint) and one in good condition is rather attractive.
The "gilding" is prone to scratches which detracts from the appearance.
http://museumvictoria.com.au/collec...stralia-1970
And a genuine gold one (slightly higher price)!
http://www.noble.com.au/auctions/lot/?id=251144

Whatever you do (if you have one) don't try to clean it with acetone or xylene they dissolve the coating. I learnt that the hard way; still, being bronze, they still look nice with the coating stripped.

cheers,
Jeff

these medallions were issued in 1970: there was a lot going on that year, it being the Bicentenary of Lieutenant James COOK RN discovering and annexing the east coast of New Holland, which he called New South Wales, and was later renamed Australia.

COOK was later promoted to Captain, and most historical refernces call him "Captain COOK", but that was not correct in 1770.

I was still at school in 1970. Every kid was given a medallion by their respective municipality. The one I got was pretty crappy.
Other medallions wer sold, including the SSB medallion pictured. In bronze, I think they were 75 cents. I wonder where mine got to ...
Can't recall how much the others were. You could probably get details from contemporary newspapers - I'm sure that they were advertized at the time.

And for the benefit of younger or overseas readers:
the SSB of Victoria was an enterprize of, and wholly owned by, the state government.
It later changed its name to the State Bank of Victoria, and in the 1980s, got into difficulty.
The Victorian government sold* it to the Commonwealth (= federal or national) government, where it was subsumed within the Commonwealth Bank, an enterprize of, and wholly owned by, the Commonwealth government. And so, the SSB, or SBV, disappeared from public view, as all of its activities and premises were re-badged. A few years later, the Commonwealth Bank was privatized and sold off.

* this part of the story was highly political, but I won't go into detail here.