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For the first time in nearly 60 years, a new monarch is set to appear on the full suite of coins in Australia.
Today, the first full proof set of coins bearing the face of King Charles III was unveiled at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra.
That means that from tomorrow, King Charles III's effigy will appear on the back of all new 2024 coins.
In late 2023, King Charles's effigy was added to the $1 coin, and then to the 5c piece and the $2 coin.
But May 16, 2024 marks the first time that the King Charles effigy coin will be available on all six circulating coins.
It is the first time in 59 years the Royal Australian Mint has changed the monarch on its full suite of legal coins, following Queen Elizabeth's reign from 1952 to 2022.
"We transitioned from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth to King Charles across the last 12 months," Royal Australian Mint chief executive Leigh Gordon said today.
"It has been an involved process ... we had to get an approved effigy from Buckingham Palace, via the Royal Mint, and then we had to make sure that worked on our coins, because the metal we use in Australian coins is different to some of the overseas mints.
"As of the start of May now, we're in a position where all of the coins we're going to be producing regularly at the Mint will have His Majesty's effigy on them, which is really important to us."
At the Mint today, Mr Gordon minted the final proof coin, which will be sent as part of a full proof set to the King as a gift — a tradition begun by Prince Philip, who received the first full proof set of coins marked with Queen Elizabeth II's effigy when he opened the Mint in 1965.
A full proof set contains the highest quality coins possible, made from a high-grade metal in a sterile environment, and pressed four times under 110 tonnes of pressure.
At $150, the sets are made predominantly for collectors.
Also being released is a $40 King Charles III 2024 Six-Coin Uncirculated Year Set.
"This is the first time we'll have the King on all six coins, and I think that that will be something that will really spike interest from the collectors and something that they'll want to get their hands on," Mr Gordon said.
"They really represent the quality and the workmanship and the artisanship here at the Royal Australian Mint.
"There's a lot of care that goes into the actual minting of the coins, but that care and consideration starts a lot earlier — in the designs that we look at and the preparation of the tools, the preparation of the blanks, the packaging and the material that we use to mount and display the coins, and the logistics process of distributing it.
"It's a beautiful memento of an important change in the framework of Australia."
The coins in regular circulation are made from aluminium bronze and copper metal blanks in a separate machine, which makes about 600 coins per minute.
Last year, the Mint made about 110 million circulating coins, distributed to banks.
There were about 15.5 billion coins produced featuring Queen Elizabeth's effigy during her reign.
Those coins are still valid and are expected to remain in circulation for decades.
The King Charles III six-coin proof year set will be available to the public on May 21.