Australia: Coin One Dollar 2001 Centenary of Federation - detailed information

This circulating commemorative one dollar coin marks the Centenary of Federation of Australia and incorporaes the Centenary of Federation logo. It was designed and sculpted by Wojciech Pietranik and has now been in circulation for 18 years.

In 2001, Australia released a series of coins to commemorate the Centenary of Federation. There were nine different designs for twenty cent coins and ten different designs for fifty cent coins which marked the occasion - one each for the six states (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia), the two territories (Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory) and for Norfolk Island, plus a common "Australia" fifty cent design. There was only one dollar coin though.

No regular (Mob of Roos) one dollar coins were released in 2001 (although Krause mistakenly lists such a coin with mintage of 1,001,000).

Crowned mature head of Queen Elizabeth II facing right (effigy known as the "Fourth Portrait"). The Queen wears the "Girls of Great Britain and Ireland" diamond tiara, a wedding gift from Queen Mary (Her Majesty's grandmother) in 1947 - which she also has on the Machin and the Gottwald portraits.

In tiny letters below the head, the artist's initials IRB (for Ian Rank-Broadley).

Around the effigy is the monarch's legend and the date: ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA 2001.

The reverse features a ribbon arranged like a simplified map of Australia, and a Federation Star. Around above, CENTENARY OF FEDERATION; divided by the ribbon are the dates 1901 and 2001; around below, the value and denomination ONE DOLLAR.

On regular (circulation) coins the central design is raised; on proofs, it is printed in colour - the ribbon is blue and the Federation Star red.

There seems to be some confusion in the Krause entry for this coin (as of the 2018 edition), which implies that there were 6,781,200 regular circulation coins (named wrongly "Australian Centenary of Federation - Norfolk Island" and wrongly said to carry a B mint mark), and separately 27,905,000 "multicolour" circulation coins (actually, only proofs in sets were coloured).