$1 Mule rarity/scarcity questions

[Goldseeker]

I first started hunting/noodling for a Mule on the 04 Aug 04 and up to date, I have searched/noodled through 2,444,996 $1 coins.   Of that total, 30,600 were 2000 $1 coins for a Mule find total of 39.   My last mule find was on the 02 Aug 2010.   All these stats are on my computer as I type.

My first Mule was found in Sydney and Merrylands RSLM Club.   I have found Mules at Melbourne, (various clubs and Crown Casino), Darwin, Adelaide and at sea in the Casino on the Pacific Sun.

Most of my Mule finds came from Crown Casino where, if I may be bold, many another forum persons and defunct forum members found theirs.

How many Mules are out there, who knows and even the RAM cannot answer that question.

I presently nave 22 Mules left in my collection of which one is on display at the RAM's Gallery in Canberra.   I have sold and swapped a few for coins what I needed.   I have had seven slabbed just recently and plan to slab the rest over the next year or so.

Besides my comment above, I have enjoyed all that has been posted on this topic.   Well done.

[robbiegal]

Great collector stats there Goldie - 0.13% of your circulation total of year 2000  $1 MOR's,    well done

[stevo1962]

Great collector stats there Goldie - 0.13% of your circulation total of year 2000  $1 MOR's,    well done

Going by Goldies figures and multiplying it out with consideration to the year 2000 mintage of 7592000 that would put the $1 mule
population at just under 10000 which we could probably never confirm but it's probably as close as we could get to a large random
sample and also taking feathers calculations into consideration we could put the two together and say that the final figure for $1 mules
 is about  8000 --  Believe it or not - Although it doesn't take into account the mules already taken out by other people in the searched samples

[robbiegal]

sounds about right to me

[nealeffendi]

I first started hunting/noodling for a Mule on the 04 Aug 04 and up to date, I have searched/noodled through 2,444,996 $1 coins.   Of that total, 30,600 were 2000 $1 coins for a Mule find total of 39.   My last mule find was on the 02 Aug 2010.   All these stats are on my computer as I type.

My first Mule was found in Sydney and Merrylands RSLM Club.   I have found Mules at Melbourne, (various clubs and Crown Casino), Darwin, Adelaide and at sea in the Casino on the Pacific Sun.

Most of my Mule finds came from Crown Casino where, if I may be bold, many another forum persons and defunct forum members found theirs.

How many Mules are out there, who knows and even the RAM cannot answer that question.

I presently nave 22 Mules left in my collection of which one is on display at the RAM's Gallery in Canberra.   I have sold and swapped a few for coins what I needed.   I have had seven slabbed just recently and plan to slab the rest over the next year or so.

Besides my comment above, I have enjoyed all that has been posted on this topic.   Well done.

Excellent record keeping.
Just 2 questions
What made you start hunting on that particular date (4/8/04)(is that when you first found out about the mule?)
And how many have you searched through since 2/8/10 to come up empty (as that will indicate how few are still in the wild). Perhaps the plotting of your numbers would indicate the trends and between you and Peter there might be enough info to satisfy the most annoying pedantic bugger on this forum ( it's me or Trout).

[trout]

there might be enough info to satisfy the most annoying pedantic bugger on this forum ( it's me or Trout).

I OBJECT, I resemble that accusation :angel:

[Unicorn]

I think the Blog covers it all pretty well.

http://www.australian-threepence.com/blog/2009/01/the-2000-1-10c-mule.html

That takes into account much of Feathers' huge effort.

That in conjunction with Goldie's findings and Fulvio's comments back on page 3 of this thread should surely give us confidence in the estimate therein.

Mule Train ...... hyah!

[Fulvio]

I OBJECT, I resemble that accusation :angel:

OBJECTION OVERRULED! Somebody hand me a ruler to hit him with!

Better yet, you two pedantic buggers can duel to the death at dawn.. mules at ten paces should do nicely... :diablo:

Oh, and as for stats, keep in mind Goldy's mules and impressive record-keeping were at least part of the motivation for the coin-finder page.. how's that coming anyway, Mark?

[Goldseeker]

The date of 04 Aug 04 was when I realized I had some excess cash at home and wanted to do something with it.   After reading an article/blog on a now defunct forum re Mules, upsets and rabbit ears, I said to myself, I can do that and that is where it started.   I started by swapping $200 in notes for coin and just kept it going to current date.   At one stage I was swapping $2,700 in notes for coin and on the merry go round.   Now I swap $500 at a time, four times a week.

Since 02 Aug 2010, my last mule find, I have reduced my swaps down to 1000 coins and now further down to 500 at a time.   I have searched 118, 501 $1 coins, for 4,507 year 2000 coins and no mules.   From May 2011 through to Dec 2012, I didn't do any noodling as my suppliers declined to swap coin for coin.   However, in December 2012 I went at it again using the CBC this time and they are the only ones I swap with now.

[SULLA]

Goldie are you close to Ginifer?

[runway]

Dennis Hughes the Sydney bus driver was the first person I knew who found one .... it was reported in the Daily Telegraph back in the day ... his eBay seller id was disco*
Edited

[Goldseeker]

Goldie are you close to Ginifer?

I am a stones throw from there.

[runway]

Dennis Hughes the Sydney bus driver was the first person I knew who found one .... it was reported in the Daily Telegraph back in the day ... his eBay seller id was disco*
Edited

Please note ... I didn't edit this

[naomi_j86]

If you're interested in another story...

I have worked 3 hours on a Saturday and 3 hours on a Sunday in a small paper shop, in not an overly busy area in NSW.
I would guess an average of 200 $1 coins would go through the shop on each of those days.
I started looking in 2005.
I found 2 mules in 2 years (2005, 2007). But have since not found one for 7 years.

The mule is my very favourite coin and there is no way I would ever consider selling them.

This year I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about the Millenium 50c. I found 2 of those in subsequent weekends. And have not actively tried to find any more since.
~N.

[Fulvio]

I found 2 mules in 2 years (2005, 2007). But have since not found one for 7 years.

One of the MNS members works for a parking company, and has lots of time to look over the coins people pay with. He found his fifth mule a couple of days ago, and brought it along to the meeting for show and tell. Well-circulated of course, but nicely centred.