1966 Australian 50 cent piece

[Vipers]

One for our members in Oz, maybe you can tell me something, quote from Wikipedia re the introduction of the decimal system in 1966 :-

In 1966, coins were introduced in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents. The initial 50 cent coins contained high silver content and were withdrawn after a year due to the growing intrinsic value of the silver content.

When I was there at the introduction of the dollar system, I got hold of a 1966 50 cent piece, having just found it again at home, and it polishes up very nice indeed, does anyone know its current value, is there a coin site in Oz I could find out from.

[Somnophore]

not very much unfortunately, I have a stack of them for the silver value but they aren't rare coins, a few quid at best can't remembe if these were 50% or .925 sterling but either way silver value would be 3-4£ at best

[Vipers]

Oh dear, better unpack my suitcase then, just found this on a web search:-

[b]An Australian 1966 (round) 50 cent coin (minted in Canberra), uncirculated and in absolute mint condition could fetch up to $12 AUD.

An Australian 1966 (round) 50 cent coin (Proof)(minted in Canberra), uncirculated and in absolute mint condition could fetch up to $100 AUD.

Their composition was 80% silver, 20% copper.

There were 36.252 million minted.

They were withdrawn from circulation fairly quickly after decimalisation because somebody figured out how to extract the silver content of the coin, which was perhaps a little too close to the face value of the coin.[/b]

Edited by Vipers on Monday 17th August 15:33