One of the rarest and most beautiful Australian coins ever produced is the coin in picture below:
The coin came about to celebrate the centenary of city of Melbourne. The planned mintage of the coin was 75,000 which were minted were planned for coin collectors and expected to be very popular. They planned to sell them at 3 shillings (while a florin = 2 shillings)planning to use the proceeds for celebration of the centenary.
Due to this many people thought its a ripoff and waited for the coin to be sold for whats its value was. Only 10k of the coins ended up selling by 1935. Just before the coin sale ended a department store bought 30k to distribute to its customers when it opened anew store. The plan was to send the remaining coins back to the mint and hence to be remelted.
Some 6k of the coins ended up being sold for 2 shilling in Perth right after the sale ended.
In the end only some ~53k of these coins ended up being sold in the end and the rest got melted down.
Coin is made from 925/1000 silver with a mass of 11.31g.
Approximate worth of the coin due to its rarity is anywhere from AUD$200( in bad condition) to almost AUD$2k (uncirculated condition or like in picture above with the original envelope that the department store placed the coin in. Most of the coins however sell close to AUD$400.
Source of pictures: www.ebay.com.au
www.wiki.australian-coins.net
