Mary Gillick portrait

This collection comprises the six standard circulating pre-decimal coinage denominations from 1953 to 1964, representing the first coins in the long reign of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

Notable for portraying a queen without a crown, Elizabeth II's first portrait was designed by Mary Gillick and chosen from an array of effigies submitted in a competition conducted by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee. Gillick's stylised portrayal of a youthful and optimistic monarch announced a new Elizabethan era following the Second World War. The iconic effigy was struck on each coinage denomination from the halfpenny to the florin from 1953 until 1964 when it made way for Australia's new decimal currency.