Increased Demand for Coins in Australia, But No Banknotes

The Royal Australian Mint (RAM), which celebrated its 60th anniversary this year, sent over 131 million circulating coins with a face value of A$75.37 million into the Australian economy during FY 2024/25, nearly three times the 47.7 million coins issued the previous year.

In its annual report, RAM detailed a returned seigniorage of $26.13 million against a target of $9 million for circulating coinage. The increased sales reflected increased ordering, with RAM reporting a rise in circulating coin demand from the major commercial banks.

RAM also produced 47.8 million circulating coins for five other nations in the Asia Pacific – including two denominations for Papua New Guinea, five denominations for Timor Leste, one denomination for the Solomon Islands, four denominations for Vanuatu, and three denominations for Tonga.

Circulating coin purchases for 2024/25 came to $75.43 million, with just over 47% ($35.8 million) of this comprising $2 coin sales.

In 2024-25, total own-source revenue was $136.68 million, a reduction from the figure of $167.77 in the previous year. Revenue from customer contracts totalled $132.47 million (compared to $165.13 million in 2023/24), including $60.88 million ($87.66 million in 2023/24) from numismatic coin sales.