I am very pleased to be here today as we celebrate the Royal Australian Mint’s 40th anniversary.
I would like to add my warm welcome to the many collectors and coin dealers who have come especially to Canberra for this important occasion.
As many of you will know, The Royal Australian Mint is a Division of the Australian Government Treasury. As such the Prime Minister gave me responsibility for its administration when I came to this role late last year. The Mint performs a vital role for our country – namely the production of both coins for circulation as general currency and coins for collection.
When the Duke of Edinburgh, officially opened the Mint exactly 40 years ago today, this was one year prior to Australia’s changeover to decimal currency. Until this date, Australia had been striking coins for its own use at Perth, Sydney and Melbourne Mints which were branches of the Royal Mint in London. This meant that we were buying coins from Britain even when they were made here in Australia.
The Royal Australian Mint holds a place in history as the first Mint in Australia not to be a branch of the Royal Mint in London.
Since opening in 1965 the Royal Australian Mint has been very busy. It has produced over 11 billion circulating coins and has the capacity to produce over 2 million coins each day - that's over 600 million coins per year. It is also a significant tourist attraction and over 200,000 members of the general public visit the observation galleries every year including many school children. One of the big attractions is the coin machine which enables school children to take home their very own brand new coin.
The Mint also produces a range of high quality collector coins highlighting Australia’s numismatic history; and general history and culture. These coins are highly sought after by coin collectors in Australia and internationally.
The Mint also has the important task of striking a number of Military medals and medals through the Order of Australia. In addition, I know the staff is looking forward to striking the medals for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next year.
Visitors to the Royal Australian Mint can see exhibitions of old and new coins. Today we are privileged to gather here to officially open an exhibition from the largest and most valuable private collection of Australian gold coins in the world - 'The Quartermaster Collection'.
This collection has been established by a private Australian collector who lives in New South Wales. It has been built up by careful purchases at auctions around the world. Many unique coins have been brought back to Australia from overseas.
The Quartermaster decided to obtain a "Full Year Set" of every Australian gold sovereign from every Australian Branch Mint. This set, along with other priceless Australian gold coins and tokens is shown in this exhibition.
Not only is it the only complete collection of Australian gold coins, but the coins are also in the best possible condition. The coins in this display are not the complete Quartermaster collection but they still have a total value of $7 million dollars.
Some of these originated from such famous international collectors as Baron Ferrai and King Farouk of Egypt.
Others, including the unique Sydney Mint £5 of 1902, were first collected by the notable Member of Parliament, Henry Dangar who built up an extraordinary coin collection between 1890 and 1910.
I would like to thank Winsor & Sons at Jamberoo for arranging this valuable coin collection to be displayed at the Royal Australian Mint and I would like to wish the Mint a very happy 40th birthday and best wishes for the celebrations planned throughout the year.
It now gives me great pleasure in declaring ‘The Quartermaster Exhibition’ officially open.