Hey Friend

Happy New Year! I hope you've had a great start to 2026.

60th Anniversary of Decimal Coins
2026 is an important year for Aussie coin collectors - it's the 60th anniversary of the changeover to decimal currency. Obviously, the best way to celebrate a milestone like this is with new coins. The Mint will be releasing a bunch of coins to highlight this anniversary, but only some details have been revealed - here's what I know so far.

First up, the Mint released a One Dollar coin to commemorate the 60th anniversary at the start of January - here's what that coin looks like (photo courtesy of the RAM):


I love the way that this coin uses elements from all six of the original 1966 circulated coins:
- The feather tailed glider from the One Cent,
- The frill-necked lizard from the Two Cent,
- The echidna from the Five Cent,
- The lyrebird from the Ten Cent,
- The platypus from the Twenty Cent, and
- The kangaroo & emu from the Fifty Cent.

There are multiple coins with this design available to buy, including a gold $10 coin, but unfortunately it doesn't look like this coin will go into circulation.

The second (and possibly more exciting) part of the 60th anniversary celebration is the annual RAM set (coming in early February, I believe). There are no official details on what this set will look like yet, but it should be revealed soon - in time for the actual 60th anniversary on February 14.

I'm hoping that there are at least a couple of special coins from this 2026 set going into circulation. In the meantime, while we wait for the 2026 coins....

'80th Anniversary of the End of WWII' Coin in Circulation
The new '80th anniversary of the end of WWII' $2 coin (with the wreath of Poppies) is out in circulation. I've added a photo below of what this coin looks like (the non-C-Mintmark version):



This coin was officially released for Remembrance Day (on 11/11), and it's taken just over a month to start appearing in circulation.

People are finding this coin in various parts of Australia at the moment in their change and also at banks. It has been found in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and it's just starting to appear in Queensland.

The mintage for these circulating coins is unknown at this stage. There was a news report that claimed this coin has a circulated mintage of 200,000, but that is false information - the mintage for this coin won't be known until at least the end of 2026 (after the Royal Australian Mint's Annual report is released). At this point, anyone who suggests a mintage for the circulation version is only speculating.

As with many of the recent commemorative coins, the denomination (2 Dollars) is on the Obverse (Heads) side:



I hope that you can find this new coin at face value in circulation. It's always good to have an excuse to keep using cash.

In the meantime, have a great week!

Cheers
Damian
--
AustraliaCoins.com.au
facebook.com/AustraliaCoins
youtube.com/AustraliaCoins