One Dollar 2022 B - Bushrangers, Coin from Australia - detailed information

The one dollar coin denomination (written as $1) was introduced in Australia in 1984, replacing the earlier banknotes. The original definitive type featuring five kangaroos has not been changed since its introduction and is still issued regularly.

Apart from the regular design, the Royal Australian Mint issues a large variety of circulating commemorative one dollar coins which have the same specifications and circulate in parallel with the definitive type - such as this one.

This circulating commemorative dollar coin is part of the The Great Aussie Coin Hunt 3 campaign - the third series of 26 different $1 coins where each features a letter of the English alphabet and an Australian symbol starting with that letter. B is for Bushrangers: the coin for the letter B features the infamous Australian Bushrangers of the 19th century.

Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base.

Bushranging thrived during the gold rush years of the 1850s and 1860s when the likes of Ben Hall, Bluecap, and Captain Thunderbolt roamed the country districts of New South Wales. These "Wild Colonial Boys", mostly Australian-born sons of convicts, were roughly analogous to British "highwaymen" and outlaws of the American Old West, and their crimes typically included robbing small-town banks and coach services. In certain cases, such as that of Dan Morgan, the Clarke brothers, and Australia's best-known bushranger, Ned Kelly, numerous policemen were murdered. The number of bushrangers declined due to better policing and improvements in rail transport and communication technology, such as telegraphy. Although bushrangers appeared sporadically into the early 20th century, most historians regard Kelly's capture and execution in 1880 as effectively representing the end of the bushranging era.

Coins issued in 2022 have now been in circulation for only two years.