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50 Cents - Elizabeth II 6th Portrait - Waltzing Matilda
| Issuer | Royal Australian Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 2020 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Thickness | 3 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | The reverse features a two-register composition celebrating the Australian folk ballad Waltzing Matilda. The upper register depicts a swagman striding across a pastoral landscape, dragging his swag past grazing sheep in an open field. The lower register portrays the iconic scene of the swagman seated beneath a coolibah gum tree, his billy suspended over a fire coming to the boil, while three mounted troopers observe him. The legend WALTZING MATILDA appears above, with the denomination 50 and the initials AWB — a reference to the ballad's lyricist Banjo Paterson — in the lower field. |
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| Additional information |
The "Waltzing Matilda" 50-cent piece was issued as part of the Royal Australian Mint's centenary commemoration of Banjo Paterson's death, marking 80 years since the 1941 anniversary — though the song itself dates to 1895, when Paterson wrote the words at Dagworth Station in Queensland after a shearers' strike that ended in arson and a disputed death. That violent labor dispute, barely acknowledged in the song's cheerful mythology, is precisely the incident the swagman's fate obliquely references.
The aluminium bronze alloy used here has been the standard for Australian 50-cent dodecagonal coinage since 2000, replacing the earlier cupro-nickel composition.