Silver Kangaroo Dollars

[Noelos237]

I'm trying to make sense of what I have here. To my understanding, the Kangaroo dollars I have (inherited) are a frosted uncirculated "specimen" finish, and some are proof. The image of the page is from Greg McDonald's 2014 book and it has gotten me confused. 

The 2 coins I have included are 1996 and 1997 respectively. Note that in the page excerpt it says "Carded specimen only" whereas mine are cased. To add to my confusion, in the following year (1998), the only cased dollars are said to be "proof" whereas the ones I have appear to be of identical finish to the "specimen" coins.

I hope I've made some sense here and that someone can clear this up for me. I've been trying to catalogue these coins and these dollars have gotten me stumped. Note that I don't have trouble distinguishing between the "specimens" and the proofs as I have examples of both, my problem is more so making sense of this page. 

Link to images: https://imgur.com/gallery/lkNUngY

[runway]

Maybe buy a newer Maccas guide or contact Greg here ... he is a member

[Mister T]

That is a head-scratcher - obviously the coins that aren't meant to exist do exist. Maybe they were omitted from an annual report of were in the following year's annual report? I assume that's where Greg McDonald got his information.

[Noelos237]

Thanks for your reply. I had a look for the annual reports but the earliest I could find was 2000-2001. Perhaps I should talk to Greg himself and see what he thinks.

[Bigfellani5]

They are meant to exist. They will be frosted uncirculated and should come with a ram certificate. These were packaged by the ram for sale by Aussie post

[Noelos237]

So are Australian post office packaged coins not included in the reference book? That would make sense

[Bigfellani5]

Because they were Frunc coins, the same that was issued on the card, I guess they did not seperate them in mint reports. From memory the mint says frunc coins were made but does not specify packaging types. I guess McDonalds if he specified packaging types (I have not checked myself) has made an assumption they were all carded given lack of other information available from the ram or Aussie post.

Anyway problem solved.

[Noelos237]

Just to add to this, the coins pictured are not in capsules like the more recent ones are. Is that an issue for long term storage?

[Mister T]

I would expect them to tone in the felt containers.

[Noelos237]

Can toning be good and bad?

[Mister T]

Yes - but toning is a tricky one. The colour etc seems to affect the eye appeal.

[Noelos237]

So it's hard to say whether I should leave it in the original felt case or not?

[Mister T]

I'd store it in a saflip personally.