BRAVE Firefighter $2 Circulating Coin

The brave firefighters protecting us from danger have been honoured in a special orange flame coloured $2 coin struck at the Royal Australian Mint. Two million of these coins have hit circulation to be found in change. A central coloured fireball sits afront two stylised firefighter figures, the left a female and male on the right standing back to back. The coin you might find in change is seen above.

The reverse is designed by Mint designer Aleksandra Stokic and features her AS initials. The obverse of the coin depicts the newest portrait of the Queen by Jody Clark with his initials JC.

The circulating coin has also been released in collector packaging by the Mint. The coin (in uncirculated condition) is housed in a capsule that presses into a small credit card sized presentation card. RRP of the coin in this pack is $10 and there is no limits on this packaging type.

BRAVE Firefighter $2 no mintmark circulating coin in card

As well as the circulating coin this commemorative firefighter reverse design has also been issued in collector packaging with a ‘C’ mintmark. This is a small C seen above the hose of the female firie. See below.

BRAVE Firefighter $2 ‘C’ Mintmark Card

The BRAVE firefighters ‘C’ mintmark coin is housed in the same collector packaging as the non-mintmarked coin but the card is much much larger in size. The ‘C’ mintmark has a limited mintage of 40,000 coins struck by the Mint. RRP for this issue is $15. General Manager at the Royal Australian Mint Mark Cartwright announced that $125,000 from the proceeds of the sale of the collector coins will go to fire and emergency service organisations across the country.

BRAVE Firefighter $2 ‘C’ Mintmark Card

Is your coin really as valuable as Google tells you? Is something that someone said on the internet really true? Such a high number it says, now you’re interest is piqued -do you read on?

“Hey I’ve got a 1983 United States of America liberty coin I’ve looked it up and it’s going for 15K”

says a user of the Google search engine. So we Googled too. Where do I go to get the money?

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But did you watch the video? Oh wait no? This particular coin touted as worth $15,000 in the headline isn’t quite as it appears. It’s a baited title to get you to watch the video, click on the advertising and they rake in the money from those clicks. As you watch the video you learn that one time, way back (6 years ago now) a near perfect third party graded and encapsulated coin sold for this pricey sum. Since then the market has shifted, populations have changed and run-of-the-mill circulated examples for the same coin fetch just a few dollars. Sorry for the spoiler, did you already book the holiday?

Just recently a news story told of the Australian 1972 5c fetching $200. Oh wow, start the car! Let’s talk about this specific example. 8.3 million coins were minted for circulation which is a low number in circulating coin production statistics so if you find one in change it’s a harder to find year. The Mint manufactured uncirculated coin sets in 1972 and one can be easily picked up for $100. BINGO, a nicer quality coin and all it’s friends too! A single 1972 5c in uncirculated (not scuffed, scratched or toned) can be purchased for around $50. Then in the high end collector market you have the best of the best coins sent to PCGS or NGC to be independently graded, certified and encapsulated and these can fetch $100+, this value is then dependent on how many have been graded that high and how many collectors there are seeking that perfect of perfect coins. So to imply that the coin you’ll find in change that has been circulating for 48 years is going to be worth $200 is again misleading titles and clickbait.

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If you think you might have a valuable coin then it’s worth doing your own due diligence which is more than reading the title on a search result. Read thoroughly or watch the video to ensure you are getting truth. The don’t just check asking prices, see what your coin is actually selling for in the marketplace right now (check sold results on eBay). First check that the information is about your coin. Does it have the same mintmark, is it an error or variety -check the details on how to identify accurately, is it the correct year, the correct country, denomination, is it the finest known example of that coin, was it produced in low numbers for that year or only in sets -there are so many small details that can affect the value of a coin.

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Collectors of mint rolls generally, and in particular collectors of commemorative coloured $2 coin rolls need to take note of recent events that could impact on their collecting habits. The Royal Australian Mint in Canberra have recently attempted to clarify issues around the release of RAM wrappered mint rolls. At the heart of the issue is whether or not the production figures of collector coin rolls that many of us purchased in good faith really are what we were led to believe.

Firstly, let’s clarify what we mean by ‘collector mint rolls’. Over the last several years the Mint has produced coin rolls in Royal Australian Mint paper as a RAM dealer exclusive product, with set numbers of each roll produced. These are sold by authorised RAM dealers for around double face value. Collectors had been willing to pay a premium as these rolls were guaranteed to contain the coin depicted on the end of the roll. This is different to coin rolls wrapped by a security company, where there is always uncertainty about the types and the grade of the coins in the roll. As such, a genuine RAM wrappered roll has been a much more desirable way of collecting premium uncirculated examples of a coin type.

In recent weeks bank customers withdrawing coin rolls from dispensing machines have been surprised to receive rolls of new coins wrapped in official RAM paper. Types of coins found in rolls have included 2017 Lest We Forget Mosaic $2 coins, 2019 100 Years of Repatriation $2 coins, 2020 75th Anniversary of the End of WWII coloured $2 coins, and 2019 Jody Clark effigy $2 coins. This has lead to a run on roll dispensing machines and a glut of seemingly genuine RAM wrappered rolls hitting the collector market. While we’ve all been eagerly awaiting new coloured $2 coins to be found in circulation this flood of $2 rolls and coloured coins seems to have had a dampening effect on collector enthusiasm. It’s easy to understand why some collectors are dismayed, how would you feel about spending double face value or even more on an ‘exclusive’ collectable product only to see others obtain the same item for face value?

The Royal Australian Mint in Canberra have this week addressed concerns in a media statement, some of which you can see below:

There are some essential elements to Official Rolls that warrant identification. Firstly, they appear in Royal Australian Mint official rolling paper. We are aware of other companies rolling circulating coins and whilst this may be of appeal to the market, these should not be considered Royal Australian Mint Official Rolls.

Also, Official Rolls feature coins that at one end have a visible obverse (heads) and at the other end a visible reverse (tails). Many years ago we established a standard for this format, with the heads and tails combination essential so that for every Official Roll the reverse design is evident, as is the year date of striking.

So in summary, Official Rolls are purposely designed, manufactured and released by the Mint for the purpose of collection. They are mintaged (capped at a publicised maximum volume), they are wrapped in our official paper and they feature a heads and tails combination.

What you may not be aware of is the fact that we cannot program our coin rolling machinery to solely produce heads and tails combinations that are utilised for Official Rolls. Therefore when we produce and package to a full mintage of 5,000 there is another 5,000 (approximately) rolls that do not meet the head/tails requirement – they are either heads/heads or tails/tails.

These coins go back into the circulating coin inventory to be utilised in orders being shipped to banks at a future time. These are not considered error coins, but rather are reject products as they do not meet the product specification required for Official Rolls. Rather than destroy them, or go to the extra time and cost of having to unpack them, they may be sent to banks in this format. At times these shipments may also contain any Official Rolls that have not been purchased to mintage.

For future, to make it easier for collectors we are looking at ways to further differentiate our Official Rolls from the Rejected Rolls. This may include an extra identifying mark on the packaging, but this is yet to be determined.

Read the full statement here

The guts of this is that at some unknown point in the past it was decided by the RAM that an ‘official’ roll was a Head / Tails roll. We’re not clear WHEN this was made policy but in the secondary market we’re now seeing coin rolls that appear to be official product that, by what is essentially semantics on the part of the RAM, are not. This is obviously leading to confusion amongst collectors as it’s not easy to distinguish an ‘official’ product from a roll simply assigned for circulation release. As with anything though, knowledge is the key and if you’re aware that uncertainties such as this case exist then you can allow for this in your purchasing budget. Or perhaps you’ll change your collecting habits to avoid these rolls altogether.

2020 Skippy 50c (image courtesy ramint.gov.au)

Mention Skippy and collectors ears prick up. The iconic television series was recently celebrated with a collector coin release and it’s popularity hasn’t waned in over 50 years. Skippy the bush kangaroo and young Sonny adorn the non-circulating coloured 50 cent inside a TV screen. The denomination of 50 cents fitting to this 50 year tribute coin. The coin also featuring the new portrait (with necklace) obverse. Just 20,000 collector coins were produced by the Royal Australian Mint with 14,000 released in a collector card by the Royal Australian Mint and Downies and 6,000 in a PNC (postal numismatic cover) released by Australia Post.

2020 Skippy 50c Card (image courtesy ramint.gov.au)

The Australia Post PNC features the coin and a $1.10 stamp depicting a kangaroo paw and cancelled in Kangaroo Valley NSW on release date 26 May 2020.

2020 Skippy PNC (image courtesy Australia Post)