Australian One Cent
Introduction
The Australian One Cent was first minted in 1966 with the introduction of decimal currency. Being the first year, there was a high amount of demand for new coinage and so the Canberra, Melbourne, and Perth mints were employed during the minting process.
By the late 1980s the purchasing power has declined to such an extent that the coin was no longer useful and in 1990 it was discontinued, only being issued in collector sets in various years.
The reverse of the coin features Australia's Feathertail Glider, a design by Stuart Devlin. Collectors love the one cent coin because of this cute design, and for the fact that brilliant red examples can be found quite affordably.
The key date for the currency issues is the 1966 Perth mint issue which has the 2nd whisker on the reverse blunt. This is because these were only issued in bank rolls and so can be quite scarce in top grades. The 1966 Melbourne, 1967, and 1968 were also only issued in bank rolls and are scarce in higher grades. The key date for the proof series is 2010 which was issued in the year's Heritage set with just 400 coins struck.