1 Dollar - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - Frilled Neck Lizard Dreaming

Part of the Perth Mint's "Australian Dreaming" series, this issue draws on the frilled neck lizard's particular status in Australian popular consciousness — the species became internationally recognizable after a 1984 Jurassic Park precursor moment when footage of one running bipedally went viral before viral was a concept, appearing in everything from tourism campaigns to the Mitsubishi Colt advertisement that ran globally through the late 1980s. The pad-printing technique used here applies color directly to the struck planchet rather than through enamel inlay, a production method the Perth Mint refined considerably during this period.