A coin for each year

March 16, 2009 7:49 AM

A coin a year, but the mint isn't sweet.

I would like to gift my special friend with a coin from each year she was born until now. That is, from 1986 to 2009.

The problem? I cannot find an Australian coin that has been minted contiguously, going via this list. I am Australian, and live in Sydney, if that helps in anyway.

What's the best way to go about this? I guess I'll obviously have to pick and match. For most years there's at least one or two different combinations minted, but for 1986 the only coin minted was the 'peace' $1, which might be hard to find.

Would this work? Or am I just being crazy and should I find another thing to do? I have already mentioned this to her, so it might be nice to follow through.

Is there anything I've missed or am just not thinking of? I know you can buy coins, but because I am somewhat poor, I would prefer not to go this route, but maybe can spend a little if there is no other way.

Thanks for any help!

posted by oxford blue to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Best answer: If you're on Facebook, why not privately message a bunch of your friends and try to come up with the coins between all of you? (The effort that would take among you would probably be touching to the birthday girl, too.) I know of the peace coin you're talking about; I've seen it several times, so I don't think it's too hard to come by.

Have you gone to your bank? They may be able to assist you in this, if by no other way than to change over a couple of twenties into dollar coins. Unfortunately, they may only have the newer ones.

You can get really creative, if you're missing a few, and put in dollar change into coke machines, then ask for your change back. Coke machines will spit out the largest coin, rather than a bunch of the smallest. I learned this when I saw a friend putting in all his five cent pieces to a coke machine, then asking for his change back. It would spit out a dollar. Because of the number of people who go through, say, train stations and get cokes, you might find the rarer dollar coins randomly this way.

Since this may indeed be difficult to do for all 23 years, I think you could make it extra special for your friend by showing the effort you went to. I think you'll be able to find most of them, if not all, just by some out of the box thinking to acquire them. No need to buy them, I don't think. Pity the Australian mint shop doesn't have birthday kind of sets, though.
posted by metalheart at 8:02 AM on March 16, 2009

Facebook and the bank sound like awesome suggestions. If you get stuck and want to open it up to US coins, I'd be happy to send you whatever I can find.
posted by KAS at 10:09 AM on March 16, 2009