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We’re not sure where the idea came from, but a number of people on eBay seem to have decided that the 1996 Sir Henry Parkes One Dollar coin is valuable. See the image above for eBay sellers asking for $1,000+ for this very common coin. IT IS NOT VALUABLE. It has a mintage of 26.2 million (twenty-six million two hundred thousand) coins. Which is rather a lot. In fact, enough that every person in Australia could own one and there’d still be some left over.
So, what is a 1996 Sir Henry Parkes One Dollar Coin worth? If it’s uncirculated and directly from a coin roll or even cut out of a 1996 Uncirculated Coin Set then it might be worth $5 if you can find someone to sell it to. In, fact, in the latest version of the Renniks, the go-to Australian coin catalogue, the value in UNCIRCULATED condition is listed as $7. If your coin is circulated AT ALL, or you’ve pulled it out of your change then it’s worth $1. And one dollar only!
How much are you going to get if you try to sell a 1996 Parkes Dollar to a coin dealer? Nothing at all. Zero. $0. They won’t buy it, they won’t even make you an offer on it. Because NO-ONE buys them. No Australian coin dealer is EVER going to buy them. In our coin shop we have a Parkes dollar stuck to our counter and offer to swap it for a normal $1 coin just to prove that THEY ARE ONLY WORTH ONE DOLLAR.
Sorry to break the bad news, but if you’ve found a Parkes dollar you’ve not struck the jackpot. You’ve got a dollar coin worth a dollar that you can put toward buying something.
