20 Cents - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - Merchant Navy

Issued to mark the centenary of Australia's Merchant Navy, this coin acknowledges a service that spent much of World War II suffering casualty rates comparable to — and in some engagements exceeding — those of the Royal Australian Navy. Australian merchant sailors had no military status during the war, meaning those killed received no official recognition and their families no pension entitlement for decades afterward. The Australian Merchant Navy Day was only formally established in 2008, four years before this coin appeared.