Pom On $1 Dollar Coin 1985

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Hello everyone.

In case anyone was still wondering,.. I have one of these coins.

They most certainly were a "thing"

As the story goes, about 40 years ago my father who was an antique dealer and his friends who were also antique dealers were flashing them around at a bbq and having a good laugh.
I think they may of had a roll of them.
Later in life he showed me the coin again and told me of a guy who indeed did work at the mint and had somehow modified the coin. He showed me with a magnifying glass and yes, the word "pom" has replaced the initials Rjd or whatever they usually are.
The guy who did it was caught of course fired from the mint and from memory served jail time.
I have no idea if the coin made mass circulation.

I rang the mint and a few dealers and no one knew of it's existence. I then found someone who had heard the story and explained PMD and told me that if it is infact "stamped" in it could be worth a pretty penny!

This op is the only reference I have found on the net and thought I'd post after my memory was jogged this morning from looking at a mule dollar on gumtree.

If any interest is shown I may post a photo but I'm not sure how it would turn out with my camera,.. it's very small.

Anyways, that's the Aussie "Pom" dollar.

Even if a 'mint worker' did this to any $1 coins they would not carry any sort of premium as they would simply be classed as "Post Mint Damage" and be worth face value only.

I've been a collector since the 60's and this is the first I've ever heard of this "damaged" coin.

It is an urban myth.

The "kernel of truth" behind this myth, is the designer's initials on the base bust of the obverse. 1985 was the first year of issue of the new portrait, designed by Raphael David Maklouf. His initials, "RDM", appear on the base of the portrait. The letters in "RDM" are cursive and run together a bit, so it does look a little bit like "POM". But it isn't. It really isn't. But back in 1985 when the design first came out, someone noticed the "RDM", thought it said "POM", and made up a story about how some red republican rebels must have "broken into the mint and vandalized the dies", since surely no-one else would want to deliberately put "POM" on the Queen's portrait. (for the non-Australians reading this: "Pom" is a mildly derogatory slang term for "Someone from Britain").

The story probably even made it into the popular press of the day. Just like those stories of people finding "fake $20 notes that are missing Flynn's name". But those stories are wrong. They're not "fake", they're just old notes from the first series, which didn't have the name there. Likewise, the story of the "POM coins" is wrong.

Have a look at any Australian coin minted between 1985 and 1998. You will see the exact same "RDM" designer's mark on the truncation of the bust.

Thanks Sap, you're a mine of info as usual and all of it bang on the money.