Silver Sunday 1966 Australian Round Silver 50c

in steemsilvergold •  7 years ago 

Australia converted to decimal currency 14th February 1966, the round 50c coin featured the Australian Coat of Arms on the Reverse and Queen Elizabeth 2 on the Obverse.

Specifications

Fifty cents
Country Australia
Value 0.50 AUD
Mass 13.28 g
Diameter 31.51 mm
Thickness 2.00 mm
Edge milled
Composition 80% silver, 20% copper
Years of minting 1966
A total of 36.45 million coins were minted with 14 million put into circulation
Wikipedia

F102854D-451D-45B7-B663-02B02BBB280C.jpeg
29DA6C7D-0B9E-453C-9106-0D61DD24AD8C.jpeg Photos by @stephen-somers iPhone 6s Monochrome Filter

Due to the Silver content being more than the face value and the souvenir value of the new decimal currency many people stashed these coins and they are fairly common.

You can find these 50c coins on eBay around the AU$8-15

They’re a popular choice for stacking as they’re both readily available and have good demand.

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I have a few of these in my stock but never really collected it as a coin but it does have the potential of slipping under the radar of people selling coins at carboots and flea markets. So always a nice find.

Even here in Australia lots of people don’t realise it’s 80% Silver, it’s not uncommon for them to show up in cash registers.

Really like the monochrome filter you have used, looks the dogs danglies.

Thanks. I find that the white balance gets messed up when I take the photo on the back background and the coin looks really gold. The mono filter strips all the colour out and looks more like the real thing.

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I'm surprised to see it was 80% silver. Around that time, regular silver Aussie coins were 50% silver.

Due to the Silver content being more than the face value and the souvenir value of the new decimal currency many people stashed these coins and they are fairly common.

The same thing happened to Canada's $10 and $5 silver coins made to promote the 1976 Olympics. Even though the Royal Canadian Mint hedged its bets by making the face values high, the silver bull market pushed the intrinsic value of both well above their face values.

(Images from here, here and here.)

All the post 1945 predecimal Silver coins were 50% silver, this one was the first decimal coin and the last regular circulation Australian coin to have Silver content although they still mint proof and special edition silver Cain’s with various nominal face values.

Thanks for the explanation. Funny: when Canada went off silver, in 1967, it first went from 80% silver to 50% silver. Then in 1968, they gave up and switched to nickel.

The silver bull market was that strong.

As a result, some 1967 dimes, quarters and halves were 80% and some were 50%. It's very difficult to tell which is which.

Maybe I'll try. thank you very much for posting