The 'Chase Manhattan' Presentation Set is comprised of five coins, the penny, florin, shilling, sixpence and threepence. Each piece was struck to specimen quality, depicting the new monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, in her coronation year. The sets were struck to order, the request placed by the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York for their Currency Museum and only twelve sets were prepared. All were exported overseas. No sets were struck for the Australian collector market.

This therefore is the only Australian issue to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Four Chase Manhattan Sets have been sighted over the last fifty years, the first sighting at Spink & Son Melbourne Auction in 1975. A set was more recently sighted at auction in November 2001, where it sold for $39,000 on a pre-auction estimate of $18,000.

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The 1953 'Chase Manhattan' Set is is an extremely rare coin issue with only twelve units produced, exported in its entirety to the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York for their Currency Museum.

The set also is extremely rare in the context of the series to which it belongs. The issue was produced on a commercial basis, struck to order for Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 and was sold to the bank in New York.

The Royal Australian Mint's release of decimal coin sets every year may have some collectors believing that pre-decimal sets were produced with the same regularity.

The reality is, over the period, 1916 to 1953 there were only four years in which the Melbourne Mint produced coin sets on a commercial basis.

The year '1953' is one of the four.

The Melbourne Mint in William Street was opened in 1872 as a branch of the Royall Mint London to strike Australia's gold sovereigns and half sovereigns. The mint diversified its coining repertoire in 1916 when it was commissioned by Treasury to strike Australia's Commonwealth silver coinage.

As the servant of Treasury, the Melbourne Mint became a prolific producer of coins for circulation.

The notion of producing limited edition pieces for collectors was not on the mint's agenda and over the next four decades (1916 to 1953) the Melbourne Mint produced only four coin sets for sale to the public.

• 1916 George V Specimen Set
Commemorating the inaugural striking of the Commonwealth's silver coinage at the Melbourne Mint. Only seven sets (in their original presentation case) have been offered over the last fifty years.

• 1934 George V Proof Set
The only Proof Set struck for King George V. Only ten sets have appeared at public auction over the last fifty years.

• 1938 George VI Proof Set
A reflection of the numbers struck, the George VI 1938 Proof Set is slightly more readily available with twenty sets sighted on the open market. Many of these have now been broken up and sold off as individual coins.

• 1953 Queen Elizabeth II, Specimen Set
The rarest by far of the commercial sets struck at the Melbourne Mint with only four sighted on the open market over the last fifty years.