Posted 03/06/2013 08:08 am
The official tolerance, or "remedy" as it is known in law, of Australian coins can be found in the Regulation made under the Currency Act, here. According to that table, 5 cent cupronickel coins ought to weigh 2.83 grams and are not legal tender if they deviate more than 0.13 grams from this weight. So in theory a 5 cent coin weighing less than 2.70 grams is not legal tender, whether the weight loss was caused by mint error or circulation damage. The banking system is supposed to filter out underweight (but still "legal") coins before they get so worn they become no longer legal tender.
When striking coin, in practice, the RAM usually aims to get much closer to the target than the allowed tolerances. Of course, if they're going to err, they'd prefer to err on the low side; routinely making overweight coins would be just giving government-purchased metal away for nothing. Not that the RAM has much control over coin weights these days, since our circulation coin blanks are all imported from South Korea.
When striking coin, in practice, the RAM usually aims to get much closer to the target than the allowed tolerances. Of course, if they're going to err, they'd prefer to err on the low side; routinely making overweight coins would be just giving government-purchased metal away for nothing. Not that the RAM has much control over coin weights these days, since our circulation coin blanks are all imported from South Korea.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
