1 Dollar - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - Great Barrier Reef

Australia's commemorative dollar program has produced hundreds of issues, but this piece is notable for its use of pad printing — a process borrowed from industrial product decoration that allows full-colour imagery to be applied to a coin surface without enamel inlay or cloisonné work. The Perth Mint adopted the technique in the late 2000s to broaden the visual range of lower-denomination collectibles without the cost of precious metal substrates.

The Great Barrier Reef designation places this within a broader environmental awareness series. Pad-printed colour on circulating alloy blanks is notoriously susceptible to wear; surviving examples with intact colour are considerably more desirable than the mintage figures alone would suggest.