10 Cool Facts About Australian Cents

The Australia one-cent coin was produced by the millions for decades during the second half of the 20th century and served as the nation’s lowest-denomination circulating coin at that time. While production of circulating examples was discontinued years ago, the Australian cent remains one of the most widely collected coins made in the Land Down Under.

1. The first Australian cents appeared on the scene on February 14, 1966, during the nation’s move toward decimalization of its currency.
2. While the obverse was anchored by portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, the reverse featured the feathertail glider – a unique type of marsupial native to eastern Australia.
3. The first-year run of 1966 Australian Cents came from the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra, the Melbourne Mint, and Perth Mint.
4. The Australian cent was struck at just the Canberra Mint for the remaining years of its circulating production run except for those made in 1981.
5. The 1981 Australia Cents were struck at both the Canberra Mint and the British Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales.
6. No Australian cents were made for circulation in 1986.
7. The last circulating Australian cents were made in 1990, which is the year that the nation discontinued making the diminutive coin as its value was eroded by inflation and production costs soared with the rising price of the bronze needed to produce the coin; the nation’s two-cent coin was also put out to pasture that year for similar reasons as those that signaled the end of the cent.
8. The Australian cent was withdrawn from circulation in 1992 along with its two-cent kin.
9. Non-circulating examples of Australian cents have been made for and sold to collectors in the years since 1990.
10. Large sums of Australian one-cent and two-cent coins were melted down and converted into bronze medals that were awarded to athletes at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics – widely considered one of the most successful Games of the modern Olympic era.