First and foremost I am new to the whole coin scene. Second, I am usually looking for error coins through pocket change or occasionally purchasing an older US penny or roll of Indian Head pennies on eBay. I am not familiar with foreign coins what so ever but when I come across one I like to research it because all coins excite me. So anyways. To get to the point. I came across a 1956 Australian penny last night. After Google searching for more information I was reading that there were 2 mints. Melbourne and Perth. Perth mint marks were a dot after "PENNY". I could be wrong but for some reason I keep reading that this coin is a great keeper. Am I over reading something? Am I confused? Please...PLEASE....give me some insight on this coin I have come across. Thank you very much.
Were that coin a proof, it would be quite valuable, even as an impaired proof. This is a business strike from the Perth mint, near as I can tell. NGC quotes value as $1.00USD in XF.
Krause #KM56. Both (1956) Perth and Melbourne catalog 50 cents in very fine. The rarest date (for pennies) is 1930, but there are some fakes out there; $5000 and up. Best chance, the handful of coins someone's Grandpa brought back from the Pacific theater in World War II.
I specialize in these. Yea it's a pretty normal one. Looks like a fairly solid strike except where the date is. Lots of contact marks. Maybe worth $1. This is a later date and they made a lot more of these and they didn't circulate as much because they switched to the decimal system in 1965.
Here's a proof penny verses a normal strike. See how much stronger the proof is struck? The details are much deeper and clear. Plus they only made around 1000 proofs each year. The chances of anyone just finding one is very low.
