5 Dollars - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - Sydney 2000 Series - Silver Proof

The Sydney 2000 Olympic series was among the first coin programs anywhere to use pad printing — a technique borrowed from industrial manufacturing that transfers ink onto curved surfaces via a silicone pad. Perth Mint adopted it here to achieve color detail impossible through conventional enameling or cloisonné work. The process was novel enough in 1998 that several other mints were watching closely to assess its archival stability before committing to their own colored issues.