My friend from New South Wales sent me a bunch of Australian coins, including pre-decimal coins including a 1948 half penny, a 1952 penny, a 1964 three pence, a 1953 sixpence, a 1961 shilling, and a 1953 florin (the last four are 50% silver, and you know I love me some silver). He also sent me this gem, a 1977 Silver Jubilee 50 cent piece. I was stricken by the beauty of this coin, and it's become one of my favorite reverses (I assume this is the reverse) of all time. I don't believe it is made of silver, but it sure is pretty.
That is really pretty - I've never seen it before. Confusing - they called it the 'Silver Jubilee' half but all were CuNi.
In 1989 some of these coins were minted in silver, but the 1977s were all cupronickel as far as I know.
Ohh, gotcha. I actually thought maybe it was something along those lines after I posted. I take it 50 years would be a 'Gold Jubilee'?
Nice coin. This particular coin has literally disappeared from circulation. I think I have about 5 of those but not in such nice UNC condition - you literally have to save it fresh out from a coin roll.
If you want to see some of the other designs, I just created a thread with pictures of mine. I have a goal of collecting a complete set of Australian coins, but a handful of rare dates and some moderns that are only in mint sets makes it harder.
Thanks for the info. It's not surprising and peoples' tendency to collect anything different and ignore the mundane is why regular issues from this era have big premiums in unc but the commems don't. I've always suspected this is a better onein Unc but would bet there are countless XF's and AU's still around.
