Celebrating the 30th birthday of the buck with a gold coin donation

49The Royal Australian Mint is celebrating the 30th birthday of the middle child of Australia’s decimal coins, the $1 coin, recognising the impact it has made on Australia, especially the charitable sector with use of the phrase ‘gold coin donation!’

Marking the currency milestone, the Mint is hosting a special pop-up store outside Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building, inviting the public to officially strike an S for Sydney on a brand new shiny 2014 $1 circulating coin. The public will be able to take the memento away with customised birthday packaging for $10, with $1 from each sale going to Cancer Council.

“To celebrate the $1’s 30th May birthday, we have teamed up with Cancer Council, who is also a fan of the month of May with Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea, a fundraiser that calls for a gold coin donation to be involved.” said Royal Australian Mint General Manager of Sales, Marketing and Distribution Mr Mark Cartwright.

“The sudden arrival of a higher denomination ‘gold’ coin meant that the value of a donation of pocket change jumped considerably. In honour of this we’re contributing $1 from the sale of each of these counterstamp coins to Cancer Council’s Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea,” Mr Cartwright said.

“It helps highlight just what a big difference the introduction of the $1 coin made for the charitable sector.”

The Mint will be setting up its pop-up store on the Queen Victoria Building forecourt on Thursday 8 May 2014, and selling 5000 of these ‘S’ stamped $1 coins for $10 each. The public will even have the chance to stamp one coin from their purchase themselves.

“This is a very unique coin. Only 5000 $1 coins will be struck with this special S for Sydney stamp and I can tell you that there aren’t going to be too many 2014 dated $1 coins out there in circulation so it makes it the coin even more in demand, especially with our collectors,” said Mr Cartwright.

The pop-up store will operate between 10am and 4pm or until sold out. Because of the limited mintage there may be a limit to how many coins can be purchased per customer.

Perhaps the most recognisable and iconic of all Australian coins, the $1 coin design, known colloquially as the ‘mob of roos’ celebrates 30 years in our pockets and wallets in May 2014. The design is by Stuart Devlin, who created the Australian fauna designs on the 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent coins.

For more information about the event, the special 2014 $1 circulating coin or the 30th anniversary of the $1 coin, please visit www.ramint.gov.au or contact below.

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