My uncle in Australia said i should post an article about this coin. It was struck for only 1 year, 1966, as the silver content (80% silver, 20% copper) far outweighed its commercial worth. As a result it was hoarded in the millions by the public. There is also a variety of it that has 2 horizontal bars behind the emu's head left over from a previous engraving of the die. It is the largest diameter of the Australian decimal currency and is still a circulating coin
This coin largely vanished from circulation nearly 50 years ago. It continues to trade as a bullion coin at around 8 to 10 ozzie dollars.
It is legal tender but no longer circulating. These would have pulled out of circulation many years ago. The current 12 sided coin is still pretty huge and heavy. One of this coin is a good 1/2 Oz! (15.55g).
Even until fairly recently, you would still occasionally see one in circulation, mistaken for a 20 cent coin. My brother picked one up just a couple of years ago. One reason why they changed to a 20 sided coin, rather than just a round cupronickel coin, was that 20c and 50c were often mistaken for each other.
Nice one. I've been here for more than a decade but have never seen one circulating other than the stories of someone got lucky. Heck, I have better chance finding a NCLT coin.
Mine cost me 10p from a dealer's tray. Clearly the dealer was unaware it was silver. So was I, until I got it home.
