2012 Australian $2 Coin

Quick answers

Is the 2012 Australian $2 rare?

No. 5.9 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.

How many 2012 Australian $2 coins were made?

5,900,000 were struck for circulation.

What is the 2012 Australian $2 made of?

Aluminum bronze (92% copper, 6% aluminum, 2% nickel). It weighs 6.6 g and measures 20.5 mm.

Is the 2012 Australian $2 still legal tender?

Yes. Every $2 coin, colored commemoratives included, is legal tender in Australia.

How to recognize it

The regular 2012 $2 shows Horst Hahne's Aboriginal elder, modeled on Gwoya Jungarai, with the Southern Cross and grass trees on the reverse. If your 2012 coin shows a poppy instead, it's the Remembrance Day commemorative and if the poppy is red it's the colored version. The obverse of all three uses Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait with IRB below the neck and ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA 2012. Size, weight and alloy are the same as every other $2: 20.5 mm, 6.6 g, aluminum bronze. The poppy coins have no Southern Cross or grass trees, so even a badly worn coin is easy to place once you know what to look for.

2012 Australian $2 by the numbers

By the numbers, the 2012 Australian $2 ranks 6th lowest of 36 circulation dates of the $2 coin. The next scarcer is the 2000 Australian $2 (5.7 million); the next more common is the 1998 Australian $2 (8.7 million).

For scale, the most common is the 1988 Australian $2 with 160.9 million, about 27 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Australian $2 with 1.8 million, 3.3 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 2012 output was 3.3 times the 2011 figure and 5.9 times fewer than 2013.

What to check on your 2012 Australian $2

• Confirm the date 2012 and the portrait on the other side.
• Check the edge: Australian $2 coins have interrupted milling, with sections of reeding separated by smooth gaps.
• Weigh it if you are unsure: a genuine $2 coin weighs 6.6 g and is 20.5 mm across.

With 5.9 million made, the regular 2012 is one of the lower mintage dates of the series. Circulated examples are usually still worth face value but they're worth putting aside and uncirculated coins bring a small premium or a collector premium in top condition. It pairs naturally with the 2011 date in a collection. When sorting a pile of 2012 coins, separate the three types first: the regular design, the plain poppy and the red poppy, since collectors treat each as its own coin.

Ian Rank-Broadley portrait: the long middle run (1999 to 2019)

From 1999 the Queen appeared in a more mature portrait by Ian Rank-Broadley, wearing the tiara known as the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland. His IRB initials sit under the neck, which is the quickest way to tell his coins from the Maklouf and Clark ones. This portrait stayed on the $2 for two decades, longer than any other on the coin so far. Hahne's reverse carried on untouched. On Australian decimal coins it followed Arnold Machin's portrait of 1966 and Raphael Maklouf's of 1985.

Mintages in this period swing wildly because the Royal Australian Mint strikes to meet demand from the banks. The 2009 date reached 74.5 million, the highest since the launch year, while 2000 managed only 5.7 million. The real standout is 2011 at just 1.8 million, the lowest circulation figure for any $2 date. The 2012 date was also light at 5.9 million and both years have become favorites for people checking their change.

This era also brought color into Australian pockets. In 2012 the Remembrance Day $2 with a red poppy became the first colored coin in the $2 series released for circulation. A steady run of colored designs followed for Anzac anniversaries, sporting events and a children's book. The portrait ended in an unusual way: in 2019 the mint switched to Jody Clark's effigy partway through the year, so that date exists with both portraits.

Mintage chart

Specifications

Other 2012 $2 coins

Frequently asked questions