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 Replies: 27 / Views: 4,772 |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
I just bought this set off Trade Me for $95. It was issued in 2001 and celebrated the centenary of Federation in Australia. I bought it mainly as the catalogue and sale price of this item is quite high, plus I was fascinated with it too.  First of all, it arrived in a large box and its much larger than I thought, basically A4 size. The contents are officially 10 x 50 cent coins, one for each state/territory and the Commonwealth - these are the money pieces. Showing coats of arms and mintages of 2 million or so circulation pieces and about 50 - 90k more in various collection permutations). 2 million seems a lot, but bear in mind, typical year mintages in Australia are 8 figures per coin, and 2 million is the average mintage of a standard coloured $2 coin, which are the hot potatoes at the moment. 9 x 20 cent pieces which were the kiddie designs and a $1 coin - none of these are rare, but still collectible. This is before the coloured $2 craze and I could have imagined we would have had state flowers/and or animals on these had Australia been federated in 1921! Kiddie Designers and notes pages (Hardcover, the notes from Howard and Hockey are the heavy official paper).   Edited by Princetane
04/02/2021 12:17 am
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Pillar of the Community
 4628 Posts |
Also what struck me was it was really thick cardboard pages and that you bought the coins separately in those packets, except the last page said the NSW coins were included. The first pages were letters from John Howard (Yawn) and Joe Hockey (Sure he got up to some mischief later on). Then the kiddie designers of the 20 cent coins and finally the first page.   Possibly better scan. The Commonwealth pair was different with a 50 cent and a $1 coin. Both are common, but refreshing to see UNC, I suspect these were included with the initial album purchase. The $1 I feel is a bit plain and they could have jazzed it up a bit.  Better picture, coins in plastic covers, any marks etc are on those, coins inside are flawless and I honestly intend to keep them that way! Then I noticed each huge cardboard page is double sided and one inserts the coins in their pouches into it with a set facing in different directions, so on this page you see the commonwealth obverses and NSW reverses, flip it over and you see Commonwealth reverses etc. Edited by Princetane
04/02/2021 12:05 am
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
First state to be shown proper was NSW and this included their 50 cent and 20 cent coin.  The 20 cent is alright, but a bit plain next to the coins of other states, particularly ACT and QLD. The 50 cents I like as like all other state 50 cent coins, its a scarcity!  The cardboard pages are interspersed with thin pages full of facts. These coins were issued in March 2001. Next in April came the Australian Capital Territory (Possibly as its in a part of NSW). What I did not know is the ACT also included a tiny bit of cost at Jervis Bay (I am getting educated about the homeland of my convict forebears).  The 20 cents is much better and brighter, (I will be doing a better shot of all the coins soon). It was interesting to include these two and never knew ACT dates from 1911 not 1913.  Edited by Princetane
04/02/2021 12:07 am
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
The release schedule of coins was like this  I assume that the Commonwealth pair was likely released in January and were already meant to have been pre purchased by the album's original owner. I honestly thought this was a complete product, but now seems that you bought the empty album (Sans the NSW pair) and were expected to buy the coins in the packs (You can see them on the Numista pages, I noticed they have the plastic covers around the coins) https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces12508.htmlI wonder how many albums were started and never finished? Also a page of mintage information  And if anyone cares the immortal words of ex PM John Howard (Seriously cobbers, the number of nongs you have had as PM, when we have all stars like Ardern and Clark)  And Joe Hockey (That name!  )  File compressing has blurred the words, but its probably all drivel anyway. |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
I also took all the coins out to do some family shots  The 50 cent coins, I put the Commonwealth one in the middle, as you can see I have 2 Victorias and are missing Norfolk Island (Any offers to swap greatly considered). It is easy to see why, the coats of arms look fairly similar. Otherwise I think they are largely in order of issue.  The 20 cent coins with the Federation dollar in the middle. These look much nicer and easier to tell apart. Leave it to a group of teenagers to outclass the technical department! Each pair of coins (Sans Norfolk Island) is shown with each state page. |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9381 Posts |
Hi Tane, I have added this coin to your pile. Looks better in hand than the photo.   Cheers Steve :) |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
Cool, that solved my problems, straight away and a nice example too!
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
Next off the mark was Queensland whose pair emerged at the end of March  I was amazed how late QLD formed, I always thought it started in 1826 with Brisbane being founded - but put 2 and 2 together and realised Britain had no Queen in 1826 (Unless it was KGIV in drag!!!). That would explain too why Queensland only issued its first stamp in 1860 and its statehood arrived in late 1859  Coin close up - the 20 cents is very intricate and probably my favourite design of all the state coins. |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
These were also put into circulation in small numbers.
Over about a two year period, I managed to make two complete sets of both the 20 Cents and the 50 Cents from coins taken from pocket change at face value, condition range good EF to uncirculated. All show very minor signs of damage such as bag marking. None are nicely presented in packaging as the coins shown here.
Most taken out of circulation within months of their release. I would believe that it would be almost impossible to complete a set now, in this way. I have no idea of what their collector value above face value would be now, but I am not very interested about that. I have moved on to collecting other sets that have been issued into circulation.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9381 Posts |
Finding these coins in circulation was what got me into coin collecting seriously.
Before that I only really dabbled in coins. Over the years I would have pulled many
sets out of circulation for trading.
Steve :)
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Moderator
 United States
188001 Posts |
Fantastic set and a great write-up!  |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
Next out was Victoria  Their 20 cent showed the Exhibition Hall built in 1880 which hosted the first Federal Parliament in May 1901 - opened by King George V when he was duke of Cornwall.  The coin designs are decent, but not on the same level as QLD's. As Sel69 said, interest has dropped off for this set and looking at the 50 cent designs easy to see why, they are quite boring! |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
After Victoria came Norfolk Island of all Places, one of the two Territories featured. Here my collection only had the 20 cent coin showing a Norfolk Pine (Considered a pest tree in northern New Zealand)  This problem of 50 cent coins has been solved by Triggersmob and you can see the coin in his post above. The design again on the 20 cents is decent.  After New South Wales, Norfolk Island was the second place to be settled in Australia, with the Island seen as a perfect place for the worst convicts and the first sortee including the Sirius arrived there on March 1st 1788, just 5 weeks after Botany Cove. The 20c shows the anchor of the Sirius amongst other things. The island was abandoned in 1805, but resettled in 1825 and convict station shut down in 1855, from 1856 Pitcairn Islanders were resettled there and they make up 40% of the Population. Today there are 10k or so people there and union with NZ has been discussed after NSW took away self government and their lucrative stamp issuing rights in the past few years. Edited by Princetane
04/02/2021 10:08 pm
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
Next was Northern Territory, which believe it or not, is not a state.  Darwin was settled in 1842 as Port Essendon, but remained a tiny backwater well up to the 1950s. WW2 saw it bombed and 1974 saw Cyclone Tracy nearly flatten it. Since then it has grown to 250k people including all the satellite towns like Humpty Doo (?) and Palmerston. Alice Springs dates from at least 1872 and big swathes of the Territory are under Indigenous control now.  I like the coins, the 20 cent shows some life. This was the last of the territories honoured, the last 3 coins would be states. For some reason they did not do coins for Island territories like Cocos and Keeling or Christmas Island, possibly as these were not part of the Union in 1901, where as NT and NI were? |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
South Australia came next and it was the only original state not a Penal Colony, it was founded in 1836 by free settlers and Adelaide was a Wakefield foundation, his only one in Australia, but his schemes had much more success in New Zealand in the 1840s and 1850s  A very high percentage of this state's population live in and around Adelaide and to the south. The area north of Port Augusta is almost empty and mostly desert. This contrasts to the verdant and fertile southern end of the state. The state has had some colourful figures like Don Dunstan and Adelaide is often compared to Christchurch, New Zealand (Well its much larger and warmer - but yeah I can see many similarities given its whiteness and conservatism, the plains and the ridge of hills with sea) The 20 cent coin again turns to nature, but is much less eye catching than other state coins (Too basic).  Edited by Princetane
04/03/2021 9:22 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9381 Posts |
Thanks for the info PrinceTane. Th Northern Territory 20c is one on my favourite designs.
Steve :)
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Replies: 27 / Views: 4,772 |
Posted 04/01/2021 9:36 pm
