Those Kiwi Coins That Circulate In Aus

I've been saving NZ coins for quite a while now. I have complete sets of 5¢, 10¢, 20¢ so far. The numbers still appearing have fallen off since the coins were re-sized in 2006.

It's weird that I hardly ever see the new size coins, almost like the folks don't want to part with them. I probably get approx 4 NZ large coins per week, maybe 3 per year of the small size.

I'm not 100% certain, but I think both 1984 & 1985 coins were minted at a different mint and all have that strange looking low relief. If Brissyboy reads this, he'll be able to come up with the data.

I'm pretty sure that CN coins from those 2 years also have a different wear pattern.

I'm like nancyc, I've assembled a fairly complete set of "current same size" coins (5, 10, 20 cent), and a mostly complete set of 1¢ and 2¢ (picked up back when those denominations still circulated here) and small $1 and $2 (most of which came from returning tourists).

Their new 50¢ is occasionally seen as an Australian 10¢, but the others are too distinctive in size, colour or shape. And unlike the old coins, none of the new ones will be accepted by our vending machines, because they're all made of steel. My first NZ 50¢ was given me by my brother, who spotted someone trying repeatedly to feed it into a vending machine; he fetched it out of the reject slot for me once the other guy had walked away.