One Dollar 1980 Fantail, Coin from New Zealand - detailed information

When decimal currency was introduced in New Zealand on 10 July 1967, there was no new circulating denomination with the size and specifications of the old one crown piece, in which only commemorative coins had been issued (the new fifty cents were equivalent in value but not in size). Until the introduction of the smaller circulating dollar coin in 1990, New Zealand issued crown-sized commemoratives with a one dollar denomination such as this one. Later crown-sized commemoratives are denominated at five dollars.

In 1980 the large one dollar coin depicted a "fantail" bird. It is remarkable in that the obverse features an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by a New Zealand artist, James Berry.