Australian one-dollar coin facts for kids
| Australia | |
| Value | 1.00 AUD |
|---|---|
| Mass | 9.00 g |
| Diameter | 25.00 mm |
| Thickness | 2.80 mm |
| Edge | interrupted milled 0.25 mm 77 notches |
| Composition | 92% Copper, 6% Aluminium, 2% Nickel |
| Years of minting | 1984–present |
| Catalog number | — |
| Obverse | |
| Design | Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia |
| Designer | Ian Rank-Broadley |
| Design date | 1999 |
| Reverse | |
 |
|
| Design | Five kangaroos |
| Designer | Stuart Devlin |
| Design date | 1983 |
The Australian one-dollar coin is the second most valuable circulation denomination coin of the Australian dollar after the two-dollar coin; there are also non-circulating legal-tender coins of higher denominations (five-, ten-, two-hundred-dollar coins and the one-million-dollar coin).
It was first issued on 14 May 1984 to replace the one-dollar note which was then in circulation, although plans to introduce a dollar coin had existed since the mid-1970s. The first year of minting saw 186.3 million of the coins produced at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra.
Four portraits of Queen Elizabeth II have featured on the obverse, the 1984 head of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin; between 1985 and 1998, the head by Raphael Maklouf; between 1999 and 2009, the head by Ian Rank-Broadley; and since 2019, the effigy of Elizabeth II by artist Jody Clark has been released into circulation. The coin features an inscription on its obverse of AUSTRALIA on the right-hand side and ELIZABETH II on the left-hand side.
The reverse features five kangaroos. The image was designed by Stuart Devlin, who designed Australia's first decimal coins in 1966.
The one-dollar denomination was only issued in coin sets in 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, and finally 2012. No one-dollar coin with any mint mark was ever released for circulation; any dollars found with such mark comes for a card.
$1 coins are legal tender for amounts not exceeding 10 times the face value of the coin for any payment of a debt.
Commemorative issue
The Royal Australian Mint has released a number of commemorative issued coins since the Australian $1 was released in 1984, some of which were not released into circulation.
| Year | Subject | Mintage |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | International Year of Peace | 25,200,000 |
| 1988 | Commemoration the Australian Bicentennial | 21,600,000 |
| 1993 | Landcare Australia | 18,200,000 |
| 1996 | Sir Henry Parkes | 26,200,000 |
| 1997 | Birth of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith | 24,400,000 |
| 1999 | International Year of Older Persons | 29,300,000 |
| 2001 | Centenary of Federation | 27,900,000 |
| International Year of Volunteers | 6,000,000 | |
| 2002 | Year of the Outback | 35,400,000 |
| 2003 | Australia's Volunteers | 4,100,000 |
| Centenary of Women's Suffrage | 10,000,000 | |
| 2005 | 60th Anniversary of the End of World War II | 34,200,000 |
| 2007 | Australia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum | 20,100,000 |
| 2008 | Centenary of Scouting in Australia | 17,200,000 |
| 2009 | 100th Year of the Age Pension | 21,300,000 |
| 2010 | Centenary of Girl Guiding in Australia | 12,600,000 |
| 2011 | Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting | 9,400,000 |
| 2014 - 2018 |
Centenary of ANZAC 2014-2018 | 21,900,000 (2014) 1,400,000 (2015) 2,190,000 (2016) 1,900,000 (2017) 2,000,000 (2018) |
| 2016 | 50th Anniversary of Decimal Currency | 560,000 |
| 2019 | Australia’s Dollar Discovery - 35 years of the Australian $1 coin. | 1,513,000 (Letter A)
1,512,000 (Letter U) 1,512,000 (Letter S) |
| 2020 | Celebrating a 100 years of Qantas | 2,000,000 |
| 2020 - 2021 | Donation Dollar - the world's first one dollar coin designed to be donated | 12,500,000 (2020)
5,000,000 (2021) |
| References: | ||
See also
