Hey Friend

2020 may have been a quiet year for coin (and banknote) collecting, but that's all changed in the last week!

It started last Thursday with several new coin and banknote releases.

Firstly, the Mint released the new Firefighters Two-Dollar coin:

This coin recognises the amazing work done by our firefighters - especially in the last year. This coin's a nice companion to the Police coin from 2019.

As with most coloured coins, there was a special version of the coin available for sale with the C-Mint Mark. Unfortunately, the entire 40,000(ish) mintage of this version sold out in minutes. However, the normal version of this coin (pictured above) will be available in circulation.

You'll notice it has "Two Dollars" on the Heads side (instead of the Tails side). This was also the case for the Donation Dollar, and it seems to be a new trend for Aussie coins with special designs.

2019 Mintages:

Another important update in the land of coins happened this week when the Mint published the final 2019 mintages on their website.

Why should you care...?

As you probably know, there were 2 different versions of the 2019 coins released with different heads sides - one with the old Heads design by Ian Rank-Broadley (bottom row below) and the other with the new Jody Clark Heads design (top row below):

The Mint has confirmed that the 2019 coins with the Jody Clark Heads side are low mintage, so it may be worth holding onto these.

It also confirmed that both of these fifty cent coins from 2019 were REALLY low mintage, and are now quite valuable due to their low numbers:
www.ramint.gov.au/fifty-cents

So, if you find a 50 cent coin from 2019, make sure to hold onto it!

New One Hundred Dollar Note:

It wasn't just new coins getting released. The new One Hundred Dollar note was released into circulation in the last week.

Image Source: Reserve Bank of Australia 2020

This is the final in the new series/generation of Australian Bank Notes. As with the previous notes, it has a similar colour/design to the older hundred dollar note, but it incorporates a lot of new security features.

You can see more about all of the current Australian bank notes (including the new hundred dollar note) here:
banknotes.rba.gov.au/banknote-features

Enjoy hunting the new releases, and please let me know when you start finding these firefighter coins in your change.

Cheers

Damian