One Dollar 2022 E - Echidna, 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. E is for Echidna: the coin for the letter E features the Australian Echidna.

Echidnas, sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the family Tachyglossidae. The four extant species of echidnas and the platypus are the only living mammals that lay eggs and the only surviving members of the order Monotremata. The diet of some species consists of ants and termites, but they are not closely related to the true anteaters of the Americas, which (along with sloths and armadillos) are xenarthrans. Echidnas live in Australia and New Guinea. They evolved between 20 and 50 million years ago, descending from a platypus-like monotreme. This ancestor was aquatic, but echidnas adapted to life on land.

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