First Coin of the Year Honours Australian Mint’s Anniversary

The Royal Australian Mint (RAM) typically mints the first coin of the year, due to its geographical position as one of the first countries to enter the new year and the event that it holds every 1 January. This year’s theme for the RAM’s Mintmark programme celebrates the Mint and its workers, coins, architecture, and coins. 

First opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in February 1965, the Mint marks its 60th anniversary this year, with this coin honouring the Mint’s history. ‘It is astonishing to think that every single coin in the pockets and purses of millions of Australians produced since 1965, was made right here, in a quiet Canberra suburb’, said Stuart Baines, the Mint’s Director of Museum, Education and Visitor Services.