You could have a small fortune in your pocket and not even know it.

Dropped into the coin shop the other day. The store owner was busy with a customer, they were almost done and when the man left I walked up to the counter. The store owner was checking out some circulated Australian coins under his light. He had just purchased the coins from the previous customer, they looked like a pile of change to me. Man was I wrong! Some of the coins were worth $500+ and that was in the state they were in... how was a $1 coin worth $1000's and a 5c coin worth hundreds? Rarity and mistakes from the mint. This was all new to me, I was in there looking for silver :)

$3750 for a used $1 coin... I can only imagine how many people are going to raid the coin jar, look under the lounge cushions and empty piggy bags after reading this. It made me think about small change differently.

Back in 2000 there was a mix up at the mint, a small part of the $1 coin being minted were struck with the face of a 10c. Producing the "mule" even in an average condition they can still be worth hundreds of dollars. These are usually found and destroyed by mint staff before they leave the mint but occasionally some escape.

Okay, this one may not be as impressive, but its $11.40 for a circulated 5c coin!

So, what do i need to look out for?

As you heard above this is all new for me, but I've put a short list
of Australian coins still in circulation to look out for.

• 1962 and 1972 5c

• 1966 20c with wavy 2

• 1968 20c

• 1997 50c

• 2000 $1/10c 'mule' mentioned above

• 2001 $1 'upset federation'

• 2000 50c 'Incuse Flag' the Union Jack was slightly different to other 50's

• 2010 50c 'Upset' the obverse or reverse dies misaligned
  
  
  Some years coins weren’t issued for circulation, and were only found in mint sets.
  Some of these coins have found their way out of the sets into circulation and can be found.
  
  

• 20c from 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1995

• 50c from 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992 Coat of Arms