Australian coins

A catalogue of what Australia struck, in which every number carries the document it came from, what that document counted, and how precisely it was printed.

Why another coin catalogue

Because the existing ones give you a number and no way to check it. Ask four sources how many 1930 pennies were struck and you may get four answers, and none of them will tell you whether the figure counts coins bearing that date or coins struck during that year. Those are different numbers, and conflating them is the commonest error in published coin data.

So every figure here travels with three things: the document, a verbatim quote from it, and a basis saying what was counted. Where sources disagree, both figures are kept and the disagreement is shown.

Pre-decimal

Halfpenny8 issues · 59 mint records Penny22 issues · 84 mint records Threepence7 issues · 34 mint records Sixpence7 issues · 34 mint records Shilling4 issues · 34 mint records Florin8 issues · 35 mint records Crown3 mint records, no dated issue

Decimal

One cent24 issues Two cents22 issues Five cents56 issues Ten cents54 issues Twenty cents68 issues Fifty cents77 issues One dollar61 issues Two dollars57 issues

Gold

Half sovereign29 issues · 10 mint records Sovereign153 issues · 64 mint records

For programs

The whole catalogue is one JSON file with a published schema, plus a guide written for agents rather than people.

api/catalogue.json · api/schema.json · api/issues.jsonl · llms.txt

What it will not do

It will not tell you what a coin is worth. Mintage, metal content and provenance can be stated truthfully from documents. A market price cannot, so this catalogue does not print one. That is the whole trade: less than you wanted, none of it invented.

Varieties

92 documented varieties and errors, each graded by the kind of source behind it: 10 primary, 54 scholarly, 27 trade, 1 hobbyist. 16 carry a recorded disagreement between sources.

No valuations. A catalogue that starts pricing rarities has stopped reporting facts.

Start here

What have you got?pick the coin in your hand and get what it is made of, how many were struck, and what we do not know Coins at actual sizeprint it, put your coin on it. Every circle drawn from a diameter a document states, and none drawn where we cannot source one Every issue, in one tableall 657 issues, sortable and filterable, for working through a series. Export as CSV

Two things you can operate

What metal is in itthe silver and gold content of every Australian coin that has any, from the Act that set it What a mintage countsbreak the Royal Mint's own arithmetic and watch it stop closing

What the reports record that no catalogue prints

Four statistics mined out of the branch mints' own memoranda, each record carrying the page it was read from.

What was taken back outthe coins called in, sorted into re-issuable and worn, and melted. Every mintage is a gross figure; this is the other side What the silver costand the Mint saying, in 1946, why the standard fell from 925 fine to 500 How much metal became coinbars rolled, blanks cut, coin struck, and two printed columns that do not agree What the Treasury issuedwhat Australia actually put into circulation each year, 1922 to 1966, which is not what was struck What the coins actually assayedmeasured weight and fineness against the Act, and the coins come out startlingly close Proof and specimen coinsexact numbers for the scarcest Australian coins, and the ten years that are the whole programme

Where the sources disagree

The Royal Australian Mint publishes its circulating output twice: rounded to millions on its website, exactly by fiscal year in its annual reports. On 14 coins the two do not agree, by more than rounding can explain.

See the 14 disagreements

Records that name no single coin

The mints often reported in aggregate: a value of “silver coin”, or “all denominations”, without splitting it. Those records are kept because they are what the source says, and because they are frequently the only figure for a year. They are not filed under a denomination, since they do not belong to one.

gold coin · silver coin · coin · bronze coin · silver and bronze coin · all coin · mixed silver coin · mixed bronze coin · all denominations · penny and halfpenny · mixed pre decimal bronze coin

181 of 538 branch mint records are aggregates of this kind. All of them are in production.jsonl.

657 issues, 655 sourced mintage records, 538 branch mint production records, 16 source documents.