Catalog
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| Issuer | Royal Australian Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1999-2019 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 6.6 g |
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| Obverse description | Right-facing effigy of Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, as designed by Ian Rank-Broadley. The portrait is a mature, detailed rendering of the sovereign, with the initials IRB appearing below the truncation. The legend ELIZABETH II arcs above, with AUSTRALIA and the date below, all in Latin script within the coin's field. |
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| Mint | Royal Australian Mint, Canberra |
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| Additional information |
The Australian two-dollar coin was introduced in 1988 to replace the paper note of the same value, a cost-driven decision by the Reserve Bank — polymer notes were expensive to produce at low denominations and coins last roughly 30 times longer in circulation. The fourth portrait of Elizabeth II, sculpted by Ian Rank-Broadley, replaced Raphael Maklouf's third effigy from 1999 onward and was adopted across virtually all Commonwealth coinage within a few years. Rank-Broadley's design was notably more naturalistic than its predecessor, a deliberate departure from the idealized treatments that had dominated royal portraiture on coinage for decades.