Last one: Sixty Years of Decimal Currency, and a Gold Set Limited to Fifty

On 14 February 1966 Australia stopped counting in pounds, shillings and pence and started counting in dollars and cents. It was an enormous logistical exercise, backed by a jingle most Australians of a certain age can still sing, and it drew a hard line through the country's coinage. Everything before that date is pre-decimal. Everything after is what we still use.

Many of us remember the jingle: In come the dollars and in come the cents, to replace the pounds and the shillings and the pence. You couldn't escape it back then.

Sixty years on, the Royal Australian Mint has marked the anniversary with something genuinely unusual: the 60th Anniversary of Decimal Currency 2026 Six-Coin Gold Proof Year Set. All six circulating denominations — 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1 and $2 — each struck in 99.99% gold to a proof finish.

This is a beautiful and rare set.

The two custom designs are the heart of it. Aaron Baggio has designed new reverses for the 10c and the 50c, and the pairing is deliberate. The 50c looks backwards, paying tribute to the pre-decimal coinage that was retired in 1966. The 10c looks at the present, representing the decimal coins in circulation today. Between them they tell the changeover story on two coins. All six carry Daniel Thorne's effigy of King Charles III on the obverse.

The weights are worth reading properly, because the set is heavier than people assume: 6.03g for the 5c, 12.14g for the 10c, 24.36g for the 20c, 33.63g for the 50c, 21.52g for the $1 and 15.88g for the $2. That is a little over 113g of pure gold across the six.

Then the mintage. Fifty sets. Not fifty of each coin, fifty complete sets for the whole country and everyone outside it. That puts this in a different category to most anniversary issues, which are usually limited in name only. Fifty is the kind of number that gets absorbed by serious collectors quickly and then simply isn't available at any price for years.

Presentation matches the content — a premium display case with a hand-engraved plaque and a numbered certificate of authenticity.

Anniversary coins can feel manufactured. This one isn't. The decimal changeover genuinely was a turning point in Australian life, and a complete gold set of the six denominations is a fitting way to mark it.

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