Australian And New Zealand Coins, How Far Back Can We Go - First Edition

Sorry from me too. Was just thinking Oz time here.

pepactonius - Some nice coins.

Welcome to 2015 a good year for New Zealand circulation coins.

This was the last year of all 5 denominations being issued since 2002 when all 6 were. Yes in 2006 the first year of the new shrunken coins, no $1 or $2 coins were issued for circulation.

And we will see this, whereas Australia was issuing coins for circulation practically every single year along with mountains of NCLT, Bullion and gimmick pieces like tonnes of gold, NZ pushed out some overpriced gold and silver collectable doins and very few circulation pieces.

The coin collecting market went very upmarket in the 1990s but peaked in the 2010s, where the cheaper items like Uncirculated grade NCLT's all but disappeared by 2014 and only Proof sets and silver ounce and gold ounce coins were issued. Hence why I have none.

Anyway without further ado, a homemade Uncirculated set of 2015 coins of New Zealand




Well that $2 is heading towards AU, but the $2 coins seem to wear quicker than everything else. The good news is most 2015 dated coins were issued in 2018/19 and are still very fresh like these.

The other big issue of 2015 was the coloured Anzac coin.




Planned in advance and tied in with a stamp issue, the coin celebrated the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC landings in Gallipoli Turkey on April 25th 1915 and they were the biggest failure of WW1 a ill planned venture by Winston Churchill and other generals, which saw thousands of young men killed on a unwinnable steep hillside. Most of the troops were Australians and New Zealanders along with some Canadians, Indians and even Maltese along with British soldiers. There was even some Maori and Cook Islander soldiers fighting in the Pioneer Battalion as well. The Turks defended their turf well and a full withdrawal happened after a disastorous defeat at Chunuk Bair in August 1915.

The campaign was praised for the courage and dignity of the soldiers and many legends were made like Simpson's pony and the camaraderie forged between Kiwi soldiers and Aussie diggers and the coin celebrates this. The flower of manhood of both countries spilled blood on that hillside and we remember their sacrifice which was part of both countries emerging sense of nationhood, fair play and honouring the decent everyday bloke.

The leaders were slammed and it led to the epithet "LIONS led by DONKEYS". It took brave and selfless leadership in WW2 for Churchill to avenge his WW1 era blunders.

Coin execution was even worse with only 1 million pieces minted and half given to army troops and family, with 400k more being put into rolls of 20, unlike 2018 there was no handling fee and rolls were sold loose at Post Offices with a limit of 2 rolls (40 coins per person) and many were sold past this. Only 100k went into circulation and all were snapped up. The coins are unseen except on Trade me and ebay now and sell at some $5 each. I have 11 examples!

Aussie Remebrance $2 with C mint mark.



Steve :)

Steve's Remembrance $2 is a nice C mintmark I see, mine isn't but still nice and interesting this coin also has the words of a long poem on them as well (In Flanders field)




A second ring $2 coin was the Australian Anzac remembrance coin showing the crosses and rocks of Gallipoli. Another beautiful design which celebrated the maintenance and care of war graves, particularly those in overseas fields. This security was threatened slightly by radical Islamist president Erdogan in Turkey, but seems to have been diffused.

2015 was the first year in which more than one coloured $2 ring coin was issued and this would increase over coming years. The 2012 to 2014 are much more scarce as we will see.

My circulation group of Aussie coins includes the following





The standard $2 coin, 10c and 5c coins (I don't have many of the later large 20c and 50c coins, reflecting the last time I went to Australia was in 2013!)

I also have an standard $1 my latest date MOR dollar and this was probably in a lot of coins I bought rather than from a trip to Australia. As you can see its fairly nice.

Also from now on, many of my circulation coins will become more worn as we leave the era of getting of fresh fresh coins from circulation, a few years wears most of them down somewhat, although the occasional resuling will come off me as well.

Nice coins, Princetane! I don't think I'll post any of my Kiwi coins as you will always get there first and yours are probably better! I got both versions of the 2014 20c when I was in NZ last year!

Here's my contribution for the day - 2014 Australian 20c and 50c:

Here are my 2014 NZ 20 cent coins. (wide date is courtesy of Princetane - thank you).




Now some nice 50 cent coins
AIATSIS


These are NCLT...

Battle of Cocos


Royal Flying Corps


Western Front


and a NCLT $1
Terra Australis


Steve :)

Welcome to 2013, starting now and going back to 2007, we will see much more limited issuing of circulation coins for New Zealand, whereas we saw reasonable coin issuing in the 2014 - 2016 period, the next few years are mostly 1 or 2 coins at most. Only the 10 cent was issued most years in this era and a new group of $1 and $2 coins were issued every 3 or 4 years on average.

That is just my country, coin demand is low and the ones we have are doing well, many 2000's dated cent denominations coins are still nice and shiny after over a decade and the dollar denominations coins are more worn but still going strong.

For 2013 we have just the dollar coin and the 10 cents of course!





I am lucky to present near to UNC coins here, by now most 2013 coins are showing a bit of wear, my guess is these 2 were pulled out of circulation by me a few years ago.

My Aussie stuff is more substantive, yet for the next few years until we reach the mid 2000s, I will be a bit more low key around here!

Wise friend!

For my Australian 2013 pieces I am missing the crucial coin of this year - the 2013 Coronation Diamond Anniversary $2 coloured coin with a purple series of rings. This is the first proper coloured ring $2 and easily the hardest to find (The 2012 piece was a coloured poppy rather than ring - but we will deal with that behemoth tomorrow).

This coin is incredibly expensive and rare to find now. I hope someone has one and can show it. I turned down an offer of $250 to buy one!





My 2013 Australia is also sparse, a worn $2 coin and a really nice 10c provided to me by Steve and a decent 5 cent piece.

2013 may be my most sparse year yet.