The Australian ten-cent coin is a coin of the decimal Australian dollar. When the dollar was introduced as half of an

Australian pound The pound ( Sign: £, £A for distinction) was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. As with other £sd currencies, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (denoted by the symbol ...

on 14 February 1966, the coin inherited the specifications of the pre-decimal

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...

; both coins were worth one twentieth of a pound and were called "bob". On introduction it was the fourth-lowest denomination coin. Since the withdrawal from circulation of the one and two cent coins in 1992, it has been the second-lowest denomination coin in circulation. For the first year of minting (1966), 30 million coins were produced at the British

Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's oldest company and the official maker of British coins. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly owned by His Majesty's Treasury and is under an exclus ...

(then in London), and 11 million at the Royal Australian Mint in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. Since then, all coins have been produced in Canberra, with the exception of 1981 when 40 million coins from the Royal Mint's new headquarters in

Llantrisant Llantrisant (; "Parish of the Three Saints") is a town in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales, lying on the River Ely and the Afon Clun. The three saints of the town's name are SS ...

, Wales supplemented the 76.1 million produced in Canberra. Years without issue for the 10c, were 1986, 1987, 1995 and 1996. Those years were only for mint and proof sets. The lowest mintage was in 2011, when 1.7 million coins were issued. There has been one commemorative issue for this denomination, the 50th anniversary of decimal currency in 2016. The image of a male superb lyrebird ''(Menura novaehollandiae)'' is displayed on the reverse of all ten-cent coin. It was designed by Stuart Devlin, who designed the reverses of all of the coins of the Australian dollar introduced in 1966. The obverse has displayed different designs featuring the head of Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia: from 1966 to 1984, the head by Arnold Machin; from 1985 to 1998, the head by Raphael Maklouf; from 1999 to 2015, and 2017, the head by Ian Rank-Broadley and since 2019, the head by Jody Clark. The obverse of these coins has the inscription AUSTRALIA and the year-of-issue on the right hand side, and ELIZABETH II on the left hand side. In 2016, (the 50th anniversary of decimal currency), the obverse was designed by G. K. Gray. 2016 obverse design to celebrate the 50th anniversary of decimal currency 10c coins are legal tender for amounts not exceeding $5 for any payment of a debt.

References

External links

Australian Decimal Currency
www.australianstamp.com
10 cents
museumvictoria.com.au {{Australian currency Decimal coins of Australia

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...