1 Dollar - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - Bright Bug Series - Red Bull Ant

The Bright Bug series was part of the Royal Australian Mint's broader push into colourised circulating coinage during the 2010s, using pad printing rather than enamel inlay to apply colour directly onto the struck blank. The red bull ant — Myrmecia gulosa — is one of Australia's more medically significant insects, capable of causing anaphylactic shock in sensitised individuals. It was among the first ant species scientifically described from the continent, documented by the entomologist William Kirby in 1826.