The 1953, Queen Elizabeth II Presentation Set struck at the Melbourne Mint, the first year of the new portrait of the newly crowned Queen and one of five known sets
This Queen Elizabeth II, 1953 Presentation Set is comprised of five coins, the penny, florin, shilling, sixpence and threepence. Each piece was struck to specimen quality to launch the new portrait of the just-crowned Queen, 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 produced.
This set is historically important. It the only Australian coin issue produced in 1953 to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Paradoxically, the entire mintage was exported overseas. No sets were struck for the Australian collector market outside of those struck for the Chase Manhattan Bank. And only a few sets have managed to make their way back from the US to their country of origin.
Five Queen Elizabeth II Presentation Sets are known, four of which have been offered at auction, the first sighting at Spink & Son Auctions, Melbourne 1975. A set was more recently offered at auction in November 2001, where it sold for $39,000 on a pre-auction estimate of $18,000. Testimony to its scarcity, this particular set last changed hands in 2002.
The 1953 Queen Elizabeth II Presentation Set 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. And in the same quantities.
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 Royal 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 complete sets of coins to sell 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, Presentation Set
The rarest by far of the commercial sets struck at the Melbourne Mint with only fine known sets.
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