One Dollar 2022 Q - Quoll, 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. Q is for Quoll: the coin for the letter Q features the not so well-known Australian animal, the Quoll.

Quolls are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea. They are primarily nocturnal and spend most of the day in a den. Of the six species of quoll, four are found in Australia and two in New Guinea. Another two species are known from fossil remains in Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits in Queensland. Genetic evidence indicates that quolls evolved around 15 million years ago in the Miocene, and that the ancestors of the six species had all diverged by around four million years ago. The six species vary in weight and size, from 300 g to 7 kg. They have brown or black fur and pink noses. They are largely solitary, but come together for a few social interactions such as mating which occurs during the winter season. Quolls eat smaller mammals, small birds, lizards, and insects. All species have drastically declined in numbers since Australasia was colonised by Europeans, with one species, the eastern quoll, becoming extinct on the Australian mainland, now found only in Tasmania. Major threats to their survival include the toxic cane toad, predators such as feral cats and foxes, urban development, and poison baiting.

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