Another Nation, Another Mint!

avatar

While visiting Philadelphia in July, I had the opportunity to visit the US Mint. Well today I am in Canberra, Australia. Canberra is home to the Royal Australian Mint. We visited on Tuesday.

qyxebr6dgd.jpg

Royal Australian Mint

Not to be confused with the famous Perth Mint, Royal Australian Mint is a federal agency that produces circulating and non- circulating legal tender coins. The Perth Mint is state owned and only produces non-circulating legal tender coins. All of the coin’s Australians use day to day come from the Royal Australian Mint.

73p874aiyj.jpg

The circulating coins of Australia, left to right: $0.05 featuring an echidna, $0.10 featuring a lyre bird, $0.20 featuring a platypus, $0.50 featuring the Australian coat of arms, $1.00 featuring a mob of kangaroos, and the $2.00 featuring an image of Gwoya Jungarai, an aboriginal man who survived one of the last massacres of indigenous Australians.

Unlike the US Mint, we were allowed to take pictures in the Royal Australian Mint. One of the first sites on our self guided tour was a grand staircase. Look closely and you will see the stairs are decorated with thousands of $0.05 coins.

29iaszcnn7.jpg

The stairs!

The Royal Australian Mint opened in February 1965. Since its opening 15 billion coins have been made. 255 million are minted each year. The mint and the banks work together to determine the amount of new currency created each year. The banks are responsible for removing worn coins from circulation. These are melted down and used to create the next batch of money.

n9ugupcfjx.jpg

Random coin facts.

One of the first exhibits we saw at the mint focused on Australian Bush Rangers. Bush rangers are a bit like the cowboys of the American West, a collection of outlaws and independent spirits rebelling against authority. The Royal Mint has created a commemorative coin to honor these notorious legends of Australia’s past. Along with the coin, the mint had a display featuring the death masks of some famous bush rangers, including Ned Kelly.

1qbkespube.jpg

The coin, Ned Kelly, Dan “Mad Dog” Morgan and Andrew George Scott “Captain Moonlight”.

The next display at the mint covered the history of Australian currency. The first coins arrived to the shores of Australia via Dutch shipwrecks. Later, sovereigns and shillings arrived in the pockets of officers with the first fleet. The first fleet transported criminals to the Australian penal colony from England.

b468kcdu2m.jpg

Shipwreck coins with the upper left example still encased in coral.

As the area’s population increased so did its need for currency. Spanish reals were widely exchanged until 1825 when the English parliament passed the “Sterling Silver Money Act”. This act standardized currency across Britain and its colonies and a shipment of these news coins was sent to Australia from the British Royal Mint.

The early 1850’s marked the arrival of the Australian Gold Rush. This discovery meant gold was readily available throughout the colony. Although a mint did not yet exist, a variety of gold coins and ingots were created in the years following the gold boom.

rp025xyfs6.jpg

Replica of a golden nugget.

On February 14, 1966 Australia abandoned British currency and shifted to decimal currency. Australian notes are known as dollars, and at the time $0.01 and $0.02 coins were also available. Today cash transactions are rounded to the nearest $0.05 since pennies and 2 cent pieces are no longer issued.

6agwug16ho.jpg

Unusual finds at the mint. A $5 silver coin and a square kookaburra penny.

Our visit to the mint ended with views over the factory floor. We saw the room where does were made and the machines used to press images onto the metal blanks. We even saw a HUGE container of blanks poured into the machine for minting.

0cpmtnljx7.jpg

Thousands of blanks.

g3j2dvo32q.jpg

Like the sign says, visit the mint. It makes cents! 🤣😂


Proud Member of:

steemsugars, steemusa, teamaustralia and steemsilvergold



0
0
0.000
38 comments
avatar

You got voted by @curationkiwi thanks to dfinney! This bot is managed by KiwiJuce3 and run by Rishi556, you can check both of them out there. To receive upvotes on your own posts, you need to join the Kiwi Co. Discord and go to the room named #CurationKiwi. Submit your post there using the command "!upvote (post link)" to receive upvotes on your post. CurationKiwi is currently supported by donations from users like you, so feel free to leave an upvote on our posts or comments to support us!
We have also recently added a new whitelist feature for those who would like to support CurationKiwi even more! If you would like to receive upvotes more than 2x greater than the normal upvote, all you need to do is delegate 50 SP to @CurationKiwi using this link.

0
0
0.000
avatar

You have received 5x upvotes from the members of @steemexplorers from your free link submission in our discord server. Steemexplorers is an initiative bringing information on various Steemit services and communities in a central discord to save you time and help you grow. It's free, it's easy, and it's here to help you in so many ways. Come by our discord to learn more! Link to Discord: https://discord.gg/6QrMCFq. Our team also offers an additional upvoting service called @givememonsters where you can presently trade in 1 to 10 DEC from the Steem Monsters game for up to $0.03 upvotes on ANY steemit posts. The vote purchasing value here is some of the best returns on your investments that you can find anywhere so come by and visit this service today!

0
0
0.000
avatar

A great article @dfinney at least where they allow you to take pictures. Would definitely be one of my stops if I ever visit the area.

Posted using Partiko Android

0
0
0.000
avatar

Now I just need to visit the RCM. I was sad to see their Vancouver store closed.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Congratulations @dfinney! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You received more than 40000 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 45000 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
0
0
0.000
avatar

Death masks!? A square penny!? Next thing you're going to tell me the water swirls counter clockwisedown the drain. What is even happening at this "mint"???

0
0
0.000
avatar

🤣😂🤣

Keep your eyes on “the bowl” 💩. 😉

0
0
0.000
avatar

Nicely done! It's awesome that they would let you take the pictures inside. That helps folks to understand the process if they can't get out to a tour anytime. Thank you for sharing!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yeah I was pretty happy about the photos. It was a nice little set up.

0
0
0.000
avatar

So very interesting, and they let you do a self guided tour??? How fascinating to be able to watch this process!!
Enjoy!!!😀

0
0
0.000
avatar

I was just happy to see some coins on the move this visit. Usually you get there and there is no action. 😄

0
0
0.000
avatar

I can understand that @dfinney, we have gone on other factory tours and nothing was moving.
Tillamook has such a tour at there cheese factory, and the day we went 90 degrees plus, nothing was happening except melting ice cream cones Lol!😬
Take lots of pictures and enjoy, you are missing LOTS of rain back here Lol😬

0
0
0.000
avatar

Looks amazing and incredibly similar to the royal mint set up over here. If you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods I'll take you on a guided tour myself (ive done it enough times) lol

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ooooo. A welshstacker guided mint tour!!!! Adding that to the bucket list. 😍

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie — oi oi oi!

0
0
0.000
avatar

🇦🇺 🐨 🦘 🏏 💚💛

0
0
0.000
avatar

You are a true collector, and it shows how you seek out more information about your passion. I am most especially grateful to you by bringing us along and sharing your experience visiting the Australian Mint. I have not been inside any Mint house yet. I really should make time to visit the San Francisco Mint.
I can tell that Mr @dfinney and you are enjoying your trip! It must be great have a reunion with your family in Australia.
Keep it coming, my dearest friend @dfinney, take care and be safe. Luv ya 🥰🌺🤙!

0
0
0.000
avatar

You should definitely visit the San Francisco Mint. But to be fair.... I have never been to that one either. 😁 The mint and the gift shop are equally rewarding. 😍

0
0
0.000
avatar

Wow, that is definitely cool! I'm going to take my girls to have a peek when I'm next there in Canberra.

0
0
0.000
avatar

They had expensive silver stuff but also inexpensive collectible stuff. Like I got my husband a weetbix coin! 🤣😂

0
0
0.000
avatar

What, no Vegimite coins?

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thanks for the tour, I'm glad you got to get pictures this time!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ha ha. Look at you on the money! Perfect.

0
0
0.000
avatar

wow i feel ive been there \o/

0
0
0.000
avatar

🤣😂 Glad I was able to share the experience with you to that level. 🤗

0
0
0.000