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Australian fifty-cent coin facts for kids

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Fifty cents
Australia
Value 0.50 AUD
Mass 15.55 g
Diameter 31.65 (across flats) mm
Thickness 2.80 mm (maximum)
Edge Plain
Shape Dodecagonal
Composition 75% copper, 25% nickel
Years of minting 1969–present
Catalog number
Obverse
Australian Fifty Cents Obv.jpg
Design Elizabeth II,
Queen of Australia
Designer Ian Rank-Broadley
Design date 1999
Reverse
Australian 50c Coin.png
Design Australian coat of arms
Designer Stuart Devlin
Design date 1965

The twelve-sided Australian fifty-cent coin is the third-highest denomination coin of the Australian dollar and the largest in terms of size in circulation. It is equal in size and shape to the Cook Island $5 coin, and both remain the only 12-sided coins in the southern hemisphere. It was introduced in 1969 to replace the round fifty-cent coin issued in 1966.

The original, round, 50-cent coin was made of 80% silver and 20% copper; but as the value of a free-floating silver price became higher, the coin's bullion value became more valuable than its face value; so that version was withdrawn from circulation and replaced with the dodecagonal cupro-nickel version.

It is by diameter the largest Australian coin currently issued and second largest after the Crown of 1937–38. It is also the heaviest Australian coin in common circulation. Many commemorative designs have been issued, the large size allowing for detailed content.

With a diameter of 31.65 millimetres (1.246 in) across flats, the 50-cent coin is one of the largest in volume among those currently circulating in the world. Coins of larger diameter include the Costa Rican five-hundred-colón and the fifty-franc (CFP), both 32.9 millimetres (1.30 in).

The 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992, year dated 50¢ are only available in mint and proof sets, with the exception of the 1967 and 1968, as no mint/proof sets exist for those years and there were no circulation strikes produced either.

Fifty-cent coins are legal tender for amounts not exceeding $5 for any payment of a debt.

Obverse

As with all coins of Australia, the reigning monarch features on the obverse. Only Elizabeth II has been featured on the coin so far.

Unlike other decimal denominations, five different portraits of the queen have been used on 50-cent coins. A unique effigy by Vladimir Gottwald was used for the 2000 royal visit commemorative fifty-cent piece. This is the only Australian decimal coin to have an obverse designed by an Australian and to have a portrait of the queen which is not also used on British currency.

The other four portraits have featured on all then-current denominations: from 1966 to 1984 one by Arnold Machin, from 1985 to 1998 one by Raphael Maklouf, from 1999 to 2019 a portrait by Ian Rank-Broadley, and since 2019 a portrait by Jody Clark. These portraits were introduced to British coins in 1968, 1985, 1998 and 2015, respectively.

Commemorative coins

The Australian fifty-cent coin was the first to display a variation of the reverse design in 1970 for the commemorating the bicentennial of Lieutenant James Cook's landing in Australia. Various other designs followed until the one-dollar and twenty-cent coins also included new designs.

Year Subject Mintage
1970 Bicentenary of James Cook's 1770 voyage 16,500,000
1977 25th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II 25,000,000
1981 Marriage of HRH the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer 20,000,000
1982 Brisbane XII Commonwealth Games 49,600,000
1988 Australian Bicentenary 9,000,000
1991 25th anniversary of decimal currency 4,700,000
1994 United Nations International Year of the Family 21,300,000
1995 50th anniversary of the end of World War II – Edward 'Weary' Dunlop 15,900,000
1998 200th anniversary of the voyage of Bass and Flinders 22,400,000
2000 Millennium year 16,600,000
Visit of Queen Elizabeth II 5,100,000
2001 Centenary of Federation 43,100,000
Centenary of Federation – ACT 2,000,000
Centenary of Federation – NSW 3,000,000
Centenary of Federation – Norfolk Island 2,200,000
Centenary of Federation – NT 2,100,000
Centenary of Federation – QLD 2,300,000
Centenary of Federation – SA 2,400,000
Centenary of Federation – Tasmania 2,200,000
Centenary of Federation – Victoria 2,800,000
Centenary of Federation – WA 2,400,000
2002 Year of the Outback 11,500,000
2003 Australia's Volunteers 13,900,000
2004 Primary school design competition winner (John Serrano) 10,200,000
2005 60th anniversary of the end of World War II 26,600,000
Secondary school Commonwealth Games design competition winner (Kelly Just) 20,500,000
2010 Australia Day 11,400,000
2014 50th anniversary of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies 3,000,000
2016 50th anniversary of decimal currency 7,000,000
2017 50th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum / 25th anniversary of the Mabo Decision 1,400,000
2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages 2,000,000
Reference:

See also

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