Two Dollars 2016 Paralympic Games, Coin from Australia - detailed information

The Australian two dollar coin denomination (written as $2) was introduced in 1988 to replace a banknote of the same value. Its original ("definitive") design depicts an Aboriginal Elder and is issued every year. The Royal Australian Mint also uses the denomination to issue a large variety of circulating commemorative coins with the same size and composition - such as this one.

To celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the Royal Australian Mint launched a series of limited edition Australian Olympic and Paralympic $2 coins.

The collection includes five Australian Olympic coins, each designed to showcase one of the Olympic Rings (with a distinctive striped circle around the centre, coloured as the respective Olympic ring: blue, black, red, yellow and green), and one Australian Paralympic coin, Australia's first multi-coloured $2 coin.

The coins were released into circulation exclusively through the Woolworths Supermarkets chain, with customers receiving them in their change only (one colour every week; then the Paralympic coins were the last to be released, on 22 August 2016). A limited number were also issued in special folders, but the Paralympic multi-coloured coin was not included in these - it was issued in a separate card. These were the first coins in the Royal Australian Mint's "Corporate Program" of issues distributed through exclusive partnerships.

Coins issued in 2016 have now been in circulation for seven years.