? The Chinese Year of the Rat is the first of a twelve year cycle of the Chinese calendar and to commemorate this the Royal Australian Mint issued this stunning edition. The Chinese Zodiac is composed of 12 animals arranged in order from the rat through to the pig. The order was established by a race between the animals, thousands of years ago orchestrated by the Jade Emperor of China. Chinese astrology and the Chinese zodiac are commemorated by The Australian Lunar Coin sequence. The 12-year ...
? The Type II twenty cent was issued from 1985 up until 1998 and featured the new Raphael Maklouf portrait of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse, with Stuart Devlin's platypus design on the reverse. Devlin's initials can be found within a swirl near the platypus' foot. The series was struck exclusively at the Royal Australian Mint in a cupro-nickel alloy with an additional silver proof produced in 1991 as part of the year's Masterpieces in Silver set. ...
? The Type III ten cent piece has been issued regularly since 1999. The type features the Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II which was introduced to put a more mature face of HM on Australia's circulating currency. The reverse contains Stuart Devlin's superb lyrebird design. Devlin's initials can be found beside the birds foot . A number of different strike types have been issued in addition to the standard business, specimen, and proof strikes. From 2001, the ...
? This is the first silver proof coin from a commemorative set called the Australian Landmark series and it celebrates the Sydney Opera House. The series was released in three stages with 6 coins altogether released in pairs according to three themes between the years of 1997-1999. The three themes were Sydney, Melbourne and the Snowy Mountains. This particular coin is of course taken from the Sydney theme issued in 1997, in which it was paired with a coin commemorating Sydney ...
? The reverse ram design continued into this type right up until the introduction of decimal currency with the conclusion of the shilling series in 1963. This type features a slightly reworded obverse legend, ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA F:D , due to the public outcry that the previous type omitted FIDEI DEF .Several mint rolls have appeared from all dates in the 1960s, a few 1959 rolls, and a substantial hoard of 1957 shillings has turned up . All other dates are quite ...