The Two Dollar Revolution: 30th Anniversary Of The $2 Coin

Commemorating our two dollar coin’s 30th birthday, this set was released by the Royal Australian Mint, and has grown from strength to strength to become the most recognisable and iconic product of the last 5 years. 

Heralded as ‘a true celebration of the heritage, creativity and engineering excellence for which the Royal Australian Mint is renowned’, the set was released in June 2018. Whilst receiving a solid response at the time, it was not an instant sell-out.

Released through the Mint’s online eShop and call centre, as well as through the Mint’s authorised distributors, the sets were readily available for some time.

I remember working in a coin shop at the time, trying to upsell customers at the register as I had a stock cupboard full of these sets, and they were not moving fast at all. Their $75 price tag was the main deterrent that stopped casual collectors from acquiring the set, even though the price per coin was $6.25 – less than the typical retail price for a mint release coin.

The set itself comprised twelve 2018-dated coins; restrikes of commemorative coins that had been released for circulation in the years prior.

Beginning with a restrike of the early Maklouf effigy seen on the original 1988 coins, the set then included the non-coloured and coloured poppy design seen in 2012, the purple coronation design seen in 2013, then moved through the various Lest We Forget and Remembrance coloured designs released from 2014-2018.

The set had a mintage of 30,000, which was in line with the issue limits for many of the mint’s products in 2018.

As mentioned earlier, the set was not met with a huge amount of hype upon its release. It was a steady seller, but the main customer was the avid Mint coin collector who would purchase every release the Mint had (within budget).

There was no huge frenzy over coloured two dollar coins at the time, but the interest level was still consistently strong for each release. Still, the feedback at the time was that the $75 price tag put the product beyond the casual collector’s budget. Online discussions generally…