10 Dollars - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - Australia's First Mints - Gold Proof

The "Australia's First Mints" series commemorates the Sydney and Melbourne branch mints established in the 1850s to process the flood of gold coming out of the Victorian and New South Wales rushes. At peak output, the Sydney Mint — converted from the derelict Royal Mint branch originally built as a hospital — was striking sovereigns and half-sovereigns directly from locally refined bullion, cutting the costly and dangerous journey of raw gold to London.

The Royal Australian Mint issued this proof in .999 gold at a weight deliberately matched to half a sovereign's worth of metal — a quiet nod to the branch mint output it references.