Are we not getting the new effigy of the Queen?

[alexpercival920210@gmail.com]

......

[ausjack]

:welcome: alex, knowing what the RAM is like they're probably trying to use up all the old dies as they're pretty tight, or they're waiting for the queen to drop off but either way it's most likely trying to save them selves money while charging the collectors like wounded bulls.

[Fulvio]

Welcome! Interesting username.. did you mess up somewhere in the registration process?

I'm with AJ on this. I would absolutely agree there's money involved, as with everything the RAM does nowadays. And don't forget the RM knows what they're planning well ahead of time. The RAM has no input, since we're not a republic, and can only react to things as they happen.

[Hercules]

Too many budget cuts. They're probably waiting for a change of government.

[Sapyx]

I believe Elizabeth II will be the last monarch that the Commonwealth Realms all use the same portrait of on their coinage. Canada has already "seceded" from the grand unified portrait scheme some decades ago, using Canadian-made portraits since the mid-1990s. I think for the next monarch, we will see Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia all use their own home-grown royal portraits; smaller countries like Belize might commission their own, or choose to use one of the others, or simply choose to use whichever portrait is owned by the mint they commission to make their coins.

The Empire is dead. Long Live the Commonwealth.

[Hercules]

The thing I don't understand is why they can't make the same number of coins for each portrait. The Raphael Maklouf portrait has always been my favourite, yet it is the most difficult to find in circulation (other than the Vladimir Gottwald one). Conversely, the IRB portrait is so common now that it hurts my eyes just looking at it. I wish they'd hurry up and release more of the changeover coins so I don't go mad. :dash1:

[robbiegal]

ditto
i wondered if that also has some hidden influence as well!!

[nealeffendi]

:welcome: alex, knowing what the RAM is like they're probably trying to use up all the old dies as they're pretty tight, or they're waiting for the queen to drop off but either way it's most likely trying to save them selves money while charging the collectors like wounded bulls.

I'd take the 180 view. The mint would love to have a year when they both use up old dies and also have a new effigy. Then the suckers out there would be collecting yet more coins from circulation as most would want both varieties. As for dies being expensive I doubt that otherwise they wouldn't be designing and making 50+ different grannybait reverses each year.

[Nevol]

otherwise they wouldn't be designing and making 50+ different grannybait reverses each year.

There's obviously heaps to be made from this sort of 'flooding' of the market. :dodgy:

Any collectors with OCD must be feeling pretty underwhelmed by the practices recently adopted.  :s

And there I was back in 2001 thinking that 20 COF coins was a bit over the top.
At least all of them went into circulation and were relatively easy to get hold of.  :yahoo:

[Hercules]

Any collectors with OCD must be feeling pretty underwhelmed by the practices recently adopted.  :s

Or they could just do what I do and limit themselves to circulating coinage. That limits the total number of coins they have to collect from over 10,000 to under 300, which is easily achievable within the space of a year.

[fred lever]

Any collectors with OCD must be feeling pretty underwhelmed by the practices recently adopted.  :s

Or they could just do what I do and limit themselves to circulating coinage. That limits the total number of coins they have to collect from over 10,000 to under 300, which is easily achievable within the space of a year.

Hercules, you are my man! I have always just collected decimal CIRCULATED type coins and that's all I list in my book. Everybody stop buying grannybait multi-coloured shirt buttons that  a young collectors dad or mum will now refuse to buy for reason of cost and send a message to the pony tails running marketing at the mint. Proofs and Uncirculated sets are fine, maybe some special theme issues, but hundreds of shirt buttons? no wonder Greg Mac go's spare!
Fred.

[JeffH]

I am happy to endorse these views. I don't often buy new issues from the mint and, when I do, they are almost invariably circulating type.
My albums predominately contain circulated coins (including NCLT, proof and mint set only years actually found circulating) from my noodling and change checking.

More challenge but much less expenditure than just buying anything the mint offers. [Also can be quite time consuming but so are most hobbies.]

[ausjack]

:welcome: alex, knowing what the RAM is like they're probably trying to use up all the old dies as they're pretty tight, or they're waiting for the queen to drop off but either way it's most likely trying to save them selves money while charging the collectors like wounded bulls.

I'd take the 180 view. The mint would love to have a year when they both use up old dies and also have a new effigy. Then the suckers out there would be collecting yet more coins from circulation as most would want both varieties. As for dies being expensive I doubt that otherwise they wouldn't be designing and making 50+ different grannybait reverses each year.

Yeah I didn't think dies would be expensive because they use so many but I was just saying how tight the mint has become but still charge collectors like it costs them a lot to produce coins when it doesn't (the more you make of something/anything the cheaper it becomes) but I hear ya saying Neal :winkextra:

[Mister T]

I hope not - while the sketch that won the contest was quite good I don't think it's translated that well onto coins.
In any case, the theme of this year's mint set makes me think the change will happen within the next 12 months.

[trout]

I hope not - while the sketch that won the contest was quite good I don't think it's translated that well onto coins.
In any case, the theme of this year's mint set makes me think the change will happen within the next 12 months.

It does look like there may be a change in the HM portrait otherwise why the IRB effigy of an era theme.