1 Dollar - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - MOR - 10 cent obverse die mule

Reverse

"Mob of Roos"

Script: Latin

Lettering: 1 DOLLAR

Designer: Stuart Devlin

Edge

7 shorter smooth segments between 7 reeded segments (11 grooves each)

Comment

In 2003 Australian coin collectors began to become aware of a major coin error that had been released by the Royal Australian Mint. A number of the year 2000 $1 dollar coins had been minted using the incorrect obverse die (heads side) and released into circulation but the error had not been found for a year or two. The obverse of some of the 2000 $1 dollar coins had been minted using the Australian 10 cent obverse die by mistake. With just a 1.4 millimetre difference in diameter between the 10 cent and $1 coin the error went unnoticed, and the legendary 2000 $1 ‘mule’ was released into the wild.

Spotting a 2000 $1 / 10 cent mule isn’t difficult when you compare it with a normal $1 coin. The smaller 10 cent die means that there is a large double rim around the obverse of the coin, this can be seen clearly in the image of the coin above. Because the smaller die was used the obverse strike is often off centre, and the double rim equally off centre. Mules with well centered obverse strikes tend to command higher prices.

Total mintage of the 2000 $1 / 10 cent mule is a matter of some conjecture. However, a number of the more prolific mule hunters shared their find statistics on the now defunct Aussie Coins internet forum. From these figures and the large sample size searched (some hunters looked through upwards of 2 million coins) it was deduced that the mintage of the 2000 $1 mule was around 6000-7000.