Two Cents 1966, Coin from Australia - detailed information

The Australian two-cent coin is the second smallest denomination of the Australian dollar. It was introduced with the Currency Act 1965 (Commonwealth) but - unlike some of the other denominations - it did not replace an earlier pre-decimal coin; given that the 5 cents piece replaced the sixpence, two cents were technically equal to 2.4 pence but the Act rounded that to either two or three pence. The halfpenny, penny and threepence denominations had no exact equivalent in the new system, unlike the sixpence, shilling and florin which were equivalent to respectively 5 cents, 10 cents and 20 cents and were re-denominated as such

To be prepared for C-day the Perth branch of the Royal Mint struck 108 million 1966-dated two cent coins in 1965 and a further 109,735,000 in 1966. The coins bore no specific mint mark, but products of the Perth Mint can be identified by the shape of the lizard's claw immediately to the right of the artist's initials SD - on Perth Mint products this claw is blunt while on those of Canberra and Melbourne it is sharp.

There were also 18,110 proof sets made.

Coins issued in 1966 circulated for 26 years before, together with coins of the one cent denomination, they were withdrawn from circulation in February 1992. They have never been demonetised though and remain legal tender.