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What is Western Australia’s first coin?
If we’re going to answer the question what is Western Australia’s first coin, the most obvious answer is a gold sovereign struck by The Perth Mint in 1899. But there’s another candidate that could...
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A silver coin from the world’s bloodiest shipwreck
On the morning of 4 June 1629, the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia was wrecked on Morning Reef in the Abrolhos Islands, off the coast of Western Australia. It was the prelude to an extraordinary...
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When is a coin a mule? When it’s a 1916 halfpenny!
In the equine world, a mule is the offspring of a female horse and a male donkey. The term is also used to describe a numismatic mismatch – a coin struck from dies not originally intended for use...
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The 1868 Type II Sydney Mint Sovereign – A Turning Point In Refining
It had been known since 1851 that the gold being mined in Australia was of greater purity than that standard in London, and furthermore that the natural alloy in which it was found included a...
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What drives us to collect coins?
The instinct to collect runs deep in many of us – collecting is a compulsion that can’t always be explained clearly, let alone be controlled by rational thought. Behavioural psychologists believe that...
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First banknotes in the West
Nearly 60 years before The Perth Mint began striking official coinage on Western Australian soil, some of the earliest banknotes printed in Australia were issued by the Western Australian Bank....
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The 1918 Perth Half Sovereign – A Truly Enigmatic Coin
The 1918 Perth half sovereign is truly an enigmatic coin – five decades had passed from the date it was made before Australian collectors were able to even confirm that it existed. From the time the...
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The Sydney Mint Medallion of 1901
This enigmatic medallion is the first in a unique set of three – they are the only medallions struck by an Australian Mint prior to 1931 that commemorates the Mint, as opposed to an event or occasion....
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How to identify Australia’s exceptionally rare ‘wavy baseline’ 20 cents coin
The 1966 wavy baseline 20 cent coin is counted among Australia’s rarest decimal coins issued for circulation. Although 58.2 million 20 cent coins were struck dated 1966, very, very few of these feature...
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How to collect the historic 1852 Adelaide Ingot
When gold was discovered at Mount Alexander in November 1851, it is estimated that more than 8,000 men decamped from the fledgling city of Adelaide to the goldfields – taking with them most of the...
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Australians take pride in their 1911 penny
The penny is easily the most collected of all Australian coins. First circulated in 1911 for the new monarch, King George V, it was one of six new Commonwealth denominations to replace British coinage...
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