1990 Australian $2 Coin

Quick answers

Is the 1990 Australian $2 rare?

No. 10.3 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.

How many 1990 Australian $2 coins were made?

10,300,000 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1990 Australian $2 made of?

Aluminum bronze (92% copper, 6% aluminum, 2% nickel). It weighs 6.6 g and measures 20.5 mm.

Is the 1990 Australian $2 still legal tender?

Yes. Every $2 coin, colored commemoratives included, is legal tender in Australia.

How to recognize it

The 1990 Australian $2 is round, 20.5 mm across and aluminum bronze (92% copper, 6% aluminum, 2% nickel).

1990 Australian $2 by the numbers

Measured by how many were made, the 1990 Australian $2 ranks 8th lowest of 36 circulation dates of the $2 coin. The next scarcer is the 1998 Australian $2 (8.7 million); the next more common is the 2019 Australian $2 (Rank-Broadley portrait) (10.6 million).

For scale, the most common is the 1988 Australian $2 with 160.9 million, about 16 times as many. The scarcest is the 2011 Australian $2 with 1.8 million, 5.7 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1990 output was 3.1 times fewer than 1989 and 1.5 times fewer than 1992.

What to check on your 1990 Australian $2

• Confirm the date 1990 and the portrait on the other side.
• Check the edge: Australian $2 coins have interrupted milling, with sections of reeding separated by smooth gaps.
• Weigh it if you are unsure: a genuine $2 coin weighs 6.6 g and is 20.5 mm across.

Raphael Maklouf portrait: the coin replaces the note (1988 to 1998)

Australia's $2 coin went into circulation in June 1988, taking over from the green $2 note that had been part of decimal currency since 1966. Notes wear out quickly when they pass through thousands of hands while a coin can stay in use for decades, so the swap made sense for a denomination people spent every day. It followed the $1 coin of 1984 and left Australia with a quirk that still catches visitors out: the $2 coin is smaller than the $1.

Horst Hahne designed the reverse and it has never changed. It shows an Aboriginal elder modeled on Gwoya Jungarai, the Central Australian man whose photograph had already appeared on a 1950 postage stamp, set against the stars of the Southern Cross and Australian grass trees. The coin measures 20.5 mm across, weighs 6.6 g and is struck in aluminum bronze with an interrupted milled edge, so the ridges run in bands with smooth gaps between them. On the 1988 and 1989 dates you'll find Hahne's HH initials on the reverse.

The obverse of this first run carries Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II wearing the George IV State Diadem, with his RDM initials at the base of the neck. Output started with a flood of 160.9 million coins in 1988, enough to replace the notes, then dropped sharply. No circulation coins were struck in 1991 and the 1993 date stopped at 4.9 million, which makes it the scarce year of this portrait. The era closed with 8.7 million in 1998.

Mintage chart

Specifications