5 Dollars - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - 'Town Halls' Sydney Town Hall

The "Town Halls" bullion and collector series, issued by the Royal Australian Mint in 2012, drew on a wave of civic heritage interest that coincided with several Australian cities undertaking major restoration work on their nineteenth-century municipal buildings. Sydney Town Hall, completed in 1889 after nearly two decades of fitful construction and political wrangling between competing city factions, became the anchor piece of the series. The antiqued aluminium-zinc-bronze finish was a deliberate production choice to evoke patinated architectural bronze rather than the bright strike of a circulation coin.