Great way to kill a few hours on a rainy day too Aus. Try the link I posted above. Jislizard (that's an awfully scary name), thanks for your great post.
Yep. Yours? I think I've read somewhere about fakes, the wave must be mirrored in the shape of the ripple in the water directly above the base of the "2" as you can see in the last photo. Jislizard would know more about what I'm talking about.
No I wish. Just went looking this stuff up. I'll be looking through my coins for these though. Just one of those buggers would be worth a solid 10oz Silver bar at least, most likely 20. With cash for buying silver being fairly lean through the first quarter this year, I'm always on the look out for more opportunities to expand my position.
And with the amount of "nickel" you've got stashed, your gonna have a ball. Time to empty that purple bucket.
No problem, you can't say it too often! The Wavy 20 has a great backstory. When Australia went decimal they knew they wouldn't be able to produce enough coins domestically. The farmed the work out to mints in Australia, England and Canadia I think. The Australians made the Dies and sent them out to the overseas mints. The Brits decided for some reason known only to themselves (and they aren't saying) that they would like to be able to tell their own coins from the others. So they went to the effort of altering the die by hand. then they didn't tell anybody. They carved out a bit of metal surrounding the two to give it the distinctive wavy shape By the time the collectors found out the British coins had been mixed in with all the others and circulated around Australia several times and were several years old. Finding one now, even battered and worn would be well worth the effort and not just because there is slightly more metal in the coin.
You've set a mission for me now for sure. So in my 5c coins I'm looking for 1972. For 20c, the wavy. Any other coins of note or anything in the 10c category? I'll dig through what I have and if I'm lucky enough to find some, I might see if I can trade for silver.
If you are going to be digging through 5 cents anyway you might as well put aside all the 1984s. There is a good chance that some will be the large variety. You may not know how to look for them now but put them all aside. When the dust settles you can do a bit of Googling and see what there is. This is the most well known variety and most collectors should have one for the collection, even if you have to tell them that yourself. When you get into it you can start looking at other varieties such as; 1966 - Canberra 1966 - London 1967 - No SD 1972 Low Mintage High and Low Echidna 1981 - Wavy neck hair Canada 1981 - Canberra 1981 - Wales 1984 - Small and Large (Rare) 1985 - Small and Large Echidna (Mint set) 1986 - Small and Large Echidna Mint set) 1987 Large and Small Echidna (Scarce) 1988 - Thin and Thick Obverse text 1991 - Small SD and Large SD (Rare) 1992 - Large and Small SD (Small) 1993 - Large and Small SD (Small) 1994 - Large and Small SD (Small) 1997 - Large and Small SD 1998 - Large and Small SD 2000 - Large and Small SD 2001 - Small head RB joined 2001 - Large head IRB spaced 2002 onwards large head, small SD I_ RB joined The 2007 and 2008 have small and large 'SD's This list was put together by Yass, a member on a couple of the coin forums. join them, they are free and if you lurk a bit before posting they are quite welcoming, the Australian Coin and Banknote Online forums are the most active in Australia at the moment. http://www.acbo.com.au/forum/ In truth there is not much call from collectors for the other varieties, Large and small echidnas are about as exciting as they get. The money is in the 72s if you can sell them! The three I have found have all tarnished and one is scratched quite badly. Still, I will get more than 5 cents for them, even after eBay and Paypal fees. 20 cents; worth saving all the 2004 and looking for the pointy 'A' if you find one you will know it by comparing it against the others, plus all 2005 are Pointy 'A' so that is a good way of comparing them. If you find a 1995 United Nations one you are doing well, 2001 Centenary of Federations are also worth a dollar or two. Don Bradmans from 2001 are also going to get you more than 20cent. not much else worth looking for in the 20s Nothing in the 10s worth looking for except for low mintages and they are so dull I can't even think of any off the top of my head. Of course all this time you have to be looking for errors! If you notice an upset, a mule, a double, a cud or a die crack they can all be sold on for a bit extra than face value. Confused yet? Also the 1985 50 cent, nothing special about it but not many were minted, so that can fetch a couple of dollars too. It is a big topic but if you look on the internet you will pick it up quickly.
Thanks for the welcome, should have a few more here soon as well. We had our club meeting in Redcliffe last Tuesday and as I was talking to a couple of members about this new forum I had stumbled across I overheard another member giving out your URL. Most numismatists have a pile of scrap coins which weren't good enough to put in the collection but weren't worth the effort to try and sell. With the price of silver going through the roof these piles have suddenly become quite interesting.
Good info. But many years old. The coins you have now have been picked over by experts & put back into mainstream. The time & effort is NOT worth the trouble. Get a life & go see a movie or have meal out with family. PLUS you will NOT smell of old coinage...YUK!!!!
Had a go at getting a few $100 in 50cents coins. Found a SMALL handfull of Federation & Goats Heads etc. Trying to find a buyer......................
Well now we have gotten rid of the copper coins we don't smell so bad! Tens of millions of these things are churned out each year, I have been through more than I can count but that is still only a tiny fraction of a percentage of what is out there. Members of our coin club have no idea about some of the varieities of Australian coins. I don't think many people even know that there are varieties, let alone look for them. There are plenty more out there. It might not be worth your while to look for them though. I went out to the cinema last month, cost about $40, it was way more fun than sorting through a pile of coins. However I can't afford to do that every week, sorting through the coins from our shop I can afford every night. The occassional trip to the bank to pick up or deposit a ton of change is also one of those small pleasures that doesn't cost me anything.
Well, I've been 'stacking' the 5,10s and 20s and got quite a few. I'm only stacking on potential future trade value in the metal, but know the gains won't be anything like silver coinage. So if I can snag the odd collectable and convert those to silver, I consider it a win. Looks like a decent condition wavy 20c can be converted to about 20oz in silver. That IS worth my time to search for I think.
I cant believe it....Ive turned into an addict. I find myself buying drinks from vending machines with my $1 and $2 coins so I can get change in "silver currency". What have I become
I do the same. I carry around a pouch of 50c, $1 and $2 coins for small denomination spending (though my discretionary spending is at an all-time low). I shop with notes and sort the coinage later. Every visit to the bank I pick up bags of coins. I prefer to keep my fiat in metal
Is it possible to put in a $50 note and press refund without buying anything to get it all back in coins?
Can you explain more? So I can go into any bank with a $50 note for example and theyll swap it and give me a bags of 20 cent coins if i want?
Remember the golden rule is first rarity then quality. I make up sets doing as mentioned above by looking in change but I also look for good quality coins. The last batch of $1 I got a few 1984 and 85's in UNC condition boy was I surprised not that they are worth a lot but this told me there are still good quality old coins in circulation. So I have a few plastic storage cases like the fishing or craft trays with dividers and I keep dropping in all of the good ones. Or at least one for every year and then I just keep upgrading as better comes along. My first sort I have made up a small cardboard year divider. It has squares on it that represent a year and their are 10 across. Then as I get a coin from the pile it goes onto the square, then once I have sorted the batch I go back through each year and pick out the best ones. By doing it this way you can really see what is rare and what is not. The aim is to have a few good sets of these and then just bulk scrap. Remember even scrap pennies are worth a lot these days So nothing to say that old Decimal in GOOD condition will not do the same in 10-20 years ? Then you have current Banknotes but that is a whole other ball game. Just keep an eye out for any errors would be my advise initially.
