50 Cents - Elizabeth II 3rd Portrait - First Fleet Bicentenary

The First Fleet Bicentenary in 1988 was the centerpiece of Australia's most politically fractious national celebration in the twentieth century — Aboriginal protest groups organized a counter-demonstration in Sydney that drew tens of thousands and reframed the official narrative of "settlement" around the word "invasion." The commemorative coin program issued alongside the celebrations was enormous, spanning multiple denominations and formats, this dodecagonal fifty cents among them.

Rolf Harris was among the public figures who performed at the bicentenary festivities. The fleet itself had comprised eleven vessels departing Portsmouth on 13 May 1787.