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🇦🇺 AN ICONIC PIECE OF AUSTRALIAN POCKET HISTORYGenuine 1983 Australian 50 Cent coin, featuring Queen Elizabeth II and Australia’s famous Commonwealth Coat of Arms.This isn’t just another little round world coin—the Australian 50c is a huge, unmistakable 12-sided coin, measuring approximately 31.65 mm and weighing 15.55 grams.THE DESIGN 🇦🇺The reverse features one of the most recognizably Australian combinations imaginable:• Kangaroo
• Emu
• Commonwealth Coat of Arms
• Shield representing Australia’s six states
• Federation Star
• Australian wattleThe design was created by renowned Australian goldsmith and coin designer Stuart Devlin. The Queen Elizabeth II portrait is by Arnold Machin. WHY IS AUSTRALIA’S 50 CENT COIN 12-SIDED?This is where the coin gets much more interesting.Australia’s original 50-cent coin, introduced with decimal currency in 1966, was actually round and made from 80% silver.As silver prices increased, continuing to make a silver 50c became uneconomical. The round 50c was also easily confused with Australia’s 20-cent coin.Australia therefore brought the denomination back in 1969 with an entirely new 12-sided shape and copper-nickel composition—the distinctive format represented by this 1983 example. The obverse carries the classic Queen Elizabeth II portrait that appeared on Australian decimal coinage during her historic reign. Australia has since transitioned its circulating coinage to King Charles III, making coins carrying the Queen’s portrait a completed chapter of Australian monetary history. 🌎 BUILDING A ONE-COIN-FROM-EVERY-COUNTRY COLLECTION?Here’s a particularly satisfying way to fill the AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺 space—not with a tiny generic coin, but with one of the country’s most distinctive denominations.Great addition for:• World coin collectors
• One Coin From Every Country collections
• Australian coin collections
• Queen Elizabeth II collections
• Commonwealth collections
• Unusual-shaped coin collections
• 1983 birth-year/date collections
• Kangaroo / animal-themed collectionsYou will receive the exact 1983 coin photographed.Genuine circulated coin with visible wear, marks and character from actual circulation. Ungraded; please use the detailed close-up photographs to judge condition.From silver beginnings to an unmistakable 12-sided national icon—a little piece of Australia you can hold in your hand. 🇦🇺
