50 Cents - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - 2012 Australian Olympic Team

Issued to coincide with the London 2012 Games, this coin was part of a broader Australian Olympic program that leaned heavily on pad printing — a technique borrowed from industrial plastics manufacturing — to apply color detail that conventional die-striking cannot achieve. The process bonds ink to the coin's surface under pressure using a silicone pad, resulting in color saturation that is durable but sensitive to improper storage.