The Royal Australian Mint (the Mint) has issued an open invitation to all Australians to visit the Mint for their New Year celebrations – and the chance to mint your own coin.
The Last Coin for 2024 and the First Coin for 2025 are two of the biggest events on the Mint’s annual calendar.
On New Year’s Eve, coin collectors and enthusiasts will have the opportunity to be chosen as the last 10 people to mint their own collectible coin featuring the 2024 mintmark theme – Out of this World – before it is decommissioned.
The following morning – on New Year’s Day – 100 people drawn in the raffle will mint the first uncirculated collectible coins made anywhere in the world.
These lucky people will also receive certificates of authenticity with their coins, while the first coin will be set into a piece of marble from the iconic Mint building’s heritage listed floor.
Royal Australian Mint Director of Museum, Education and Visitor Services Stuart Baines said
anyone who is in Canberra on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day is welcome to come and join the fun.
“The first person drawn on New Year’s Day will press the first 2025 dated coin, not only in Australia, but around the world.
“With a raffle, every person at the Mint on the first of January has an equal chance of being the selected history maker.
“The first coin of the year is one of the Mint’s much loved coin traditions, which we have celebrated for more than a decade,” Mr Baines said.
The Mint’s annual mintmark theme will be unveiled as part of the New Year’s Day event, which will be on the ‘tails’ side of the coin and feature strongly across the gallery and coin collections for the 2025 calendar year.
Participants must be on site at the Mint (in Deakin) to enter into the raffle and be present for the draw. The cost to mint your own coin on the gallery coin press is $3 per coin.
To enter into the raffle, visitors need to be at the Mint from 3.30pm to 4.30pm on Tuesday, 31 December to collect their ticket for the final coin of the year.
For the first coin raffle, entrants can collect their wrist band from 7am to 8am, with the draw taking place at 8.15am, followed immediately by the minting of the first 100 coins. The Mint will then open to the public at 10am.
Full terms and conditions are available on the Mint’s website at www.ramint.gov.au.
