WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.279 Welcome to today's deep dive learner. We are 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:05.599 we're so glad you're here with us today. Our 00:00:05.599 --> 00:00:09.179 mission is to basically completely dismantle 00:00:09.179 --> 00:00:12.439 how you think about that. loose change rattling 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:15.320 around in your car's cup holder. Yeah, it's it 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:17.559 really challenges the whole idea that currency 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:20.379 is just this sterile means to an end, you know. 00:00:20.539 --> 00:00:23.579 Exactly. We have a single source document today, 00:00:23.699 --> 00:00:25.539 which is the Wikipedia article on the Australian 00:00:25.539 --> 00:00:27.640 two dollar coin. Yeah. And we're going to use 00:00:27.640 --> 00:00:30.379 it to prove that this tiny, you know, seemingly 00:00:30.379 --> 00:00:33.420 mundane piece of metal is actually a master class 00:00:33.420 --> 00:00:36.719 in heavy industrial logistics, behavioral economics 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:38.799 and some deeply moving cultural storytelling. 00:00:38.939 --> 00:00:40.719 Right, because when you actually stop and read 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:43.740 the specific object, I mean, it acts less like 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:46.399 a financial token and, well, more like a highly 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:48.840 condensed cultural timeline. I promise you, by 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:50.640 the end of this conversation, you will never 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:52.659 look at a handful of change the same way again. 00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:55.479 We are talking about an everyday item that somehow 00:00:55.479 --> 00:00:58.509 bridges the British monarchy. incredible aboriginal 00:00:58.509 --> 00:01:01.289 resilience, and completely unironically brightly 00:01:01.289 --> 00:01:03.750 colored children's television characters. That's 00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:06.530 a pretty wild mix. It really is. Okay, let's 00:01:06.530 --> 00:01:09.430 unpack this. Before we get into the historical 00:01:09.430 --> 00:01:12.090 gravity stamped onto the coin, we need to understand 00:01:12.090 --> 00:01:15.650 its physical blueprint. Like, why does this unusually 00:01:15.650 --> 00:01:19.030 dense, heavy little disc even exist in the first 00:01:19.030 --> 00:01:21.590 place? Well, the existence of this coin is rooted 00:01:21.590 --> 00:01:24.349 entirely in a pretty harsh economic reality, 00:01:24.510 --> 00:01:26.870 which is the cost to mint ratio. Right. The two 00:01:26.870 --> 00:01:29.530 dollar coin was officially born on June 20th, 00:01:29.549 --> 00:01:32.230 1988, but the Australian government had actually 00:01:32.230 --> 00:01:36.069 been engineering its release since the mid 1970s. 00:01:36.250 --> 00:01:39.140 Really? The mid -70s? Yeah. They spent over a 00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:42.180 decade just plotting the demise of the old $2 00:01:42.180 --> 00:01:44.900 paper note. Over 10 years just to swap paper 00:01:44.900 --> 00:01:47.299 for metal? I mean, that seems like an enormous 00:01:47.299 --> 00:01:49.620 administrative headache for a $2 denomination. 00:01:49.980 --> 00:01:51.980 It was a massive undertaking, yeah, but it was 00:01:51.980 --> 00:01:54.379 driven by this concept of circulatory life. I 00:01:54.379 --> 00:01:56.340 mean, we all know paper tears into grades, right? 00:01:56.359 --> 00:01:59.659 Yeah. The sheer financial burden of printing 00:01:59.659 --> 00:02:02.859 low denomination notes is just staggering. A 00:02:02.859 --> 00:02:05.680 heavily used $2 note might only survive in the 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:08.340 economy for, say, six months before the central 00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:10.379 bank has to collect it, destroy it, and then 00:02:10.379 --> 00:02:13.199 pay to print a replacement. Wow. Six months. 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:15.680 Yeah, so over a 30 -year timeline, you're paying 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.979 to replace that exact same $2 value, like, 60 00:02:18.979 --> 00:02:22.520 times. But a metal coin is minted once and can 00:02:22.520 --> 00:02:25.199 circulate for decades with almost zero maintenance, 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:28.139 so it was just a pure cost -saving necessity. 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:31.439 That makes perfect economic sense, but the physical 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:33.580 specifications they ultimately landed on are 00:02:33.580 --> 00:02:36.039 just wild to me. It's essentially like a physical 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:38.699 zip file. That's a great way to put it. It packs 00:02:38.699 --> 00:02:41.740 this relatively high economic value into a remarkably 00:02:41.740 --> 00:02:45.409 small surprisingly heavy frame. The dimensions 00:02:45.409 --> 00:02:47.710 listed in the source are incredibly specific, 00:02:48.090 --> 00:02:51.550 so it weighs exactly 6 .60 grams. It's a chunky 00:02:51.550 --> 00:02:54.770 2 .80 millimeters thick, but its diameter is 00:02:54.770 --> 00:02:57.229 only 20 .50 millimeters. Right, which gives it 00:02:57.229 --> 00:02:59.430 an incredibly dense weight -to -size ratio, and 00:02:59.430 --> 00:03:02.250 they used a really specific alloy for it. 92 00:03:02.250 --> 00:03:05.729 % copper, 6 % aluminum, and 2 % nickel. Okay, 00:03:05.729 --> 00:03:07.870 so that's what gives it that durable golden color. 00:03:08.090 --> 00:03:10.030 Exactly, but that diameter you mentioned, the 00:03:10.030 --> 00:03:12.009 20 .50 millimeters, that's the true quirk of 00:03:12.009 --> 00:03:14.129 its engineering. Because it means the dollar 00:03:14.129 --> 00:03:16.509 coin is physically smaller than the Australian 00:03:16.509 --> 00:03:19.129 one dollar coin. So I kind of have to push back 00:03:19.129 --> 00:03:21.430 on this design choice here. If the government 00:03:21.430 --> 00:03:24.650 spent a decade engineering this, why intentionally 00:03:24.650 --> 00:03:26.590 make the two dollar coin smaller than the one 00:03:26.590 --> 00:03:29.689 dollar coin? Doesn't that invite massive confusion, 00:03:29.729 --> 00:03:31.810 especially for tourists visiting the country 00:03:31.810 --> 00:03:34.629 who naturally assume bigger coins equal more 00:03:34.629 --> 00:03:37.319 money? Oh, it completely invites confusion. And 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:39.560 it was a major concern at the time. But, well, 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:41.740 the mint was trapped by the existing physical 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:43.780 ecosystem of Australian currency. What do you 00:03:43.780 --> 00:03:46.819 mean? Well, by the time 1988 rolled around, the 00:03:46.819 --> 00:03:48.819 one dollar coin had already been introduced in 00:03:48.819 --> 00:03:51.800 1984. And the silver coins, the large 50 cent, 00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:54.240 20 cent, the 10 cent, the five cent, they were 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:57.000 already thoroughly entrenched in every vending 00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.879 machine, parking meter and payphone in the entire 00:03:59.879 --> 00:04:02.469 country. Ah, so they couldn't just make it bigger 00:04:02.469 --> 00:04:04.789 than the one dollar coin because it would either 00:04:04.789 --> 00:04:08.830 rival that massive 50 cent piece or require retrofitting 00:04:08.830 --> 00:04:12.349 millions of coin mechanisms. Precisely. They 00:04:12.349 --> 00:04:14.990 had to thread a very tight mechanical needle. 00:04:15.990 --> 00:04:18.050 I mean, the vending machine industry dictates 00:04:18.050 --> 00:04:20.589 coin sizes just as much as the government does. 00:04:20.769 --> 00:04:22.930 That makes sense. So the two dollar coin had 00:04:22.930 --> 00:04:25.370 to be heavy enough to register its value, but 00:04:25.370 --> 00:04:27.689 small enough to not be confused with the silver 00:04:27.689 --> 00:04:31.029 coins. To compensate for the really small diameter, 00:04:31.410 --> 00:04:33.910 they made it exceptionally thick. Furthermore, 00:04:34.189 --> 00:04:36.310 they had to ensure it was tactically unique for 00:04:36.310 --> 00:04:38.509 the visually impaired. Which brings us to the 00:04:38.509 --> 00:04:41.370 edges. The Wikipedia article details this beautifully. 00:04:42.029 --> 00:04:43.949 It doesn't just have a rough edge, right? It 00:04:43.949 --> 00:04:46.550 has this interrupted milled edge. Yeah, the milling 00:04:46.550 --> 00:04:49.250 is fascinating. There are exactly 20 notches, 00:04:49.430 --> 00:04:51.189 but they're mathematically grouped into four 00:04:51.189 --> 00:04:53.529 lots of five grooves, and each of those lots 00:04:53.529 --> 00:04:56.370 is separated by exactly seven millimeters of 00:04:56.370 --> 00:04:59.519 perfectly smooth edge. It's pure tactile engineering. 00:04:59.699 --> 00:05:01.720 You can feel exactly what denomination you are 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:03.620 holding without ever pulling it out of your pocket. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:08.000 And through this bizarre twist of global numismatic 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:11.259 synchronicity, those exact dimensions, the 20 00:05:11.259 --> 00:05:13.959 .5 millimeter diameter and the specific interrupted 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:17.959 milling meal, the Australian $2 coin shares the 00:05:17.959 --> 00:05:20.720 exact same physical profile as the 10 Swedish 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:23.800 Kroner coin. Oh, wow. I love that. Two entirely 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:25.860 different economies, thousands of miles apart, 00:05:26.339 --> 00:05:28.620 arriving at the exact same physical zip file. 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:31.100 Yeah, it's a really funny coincidence. Okay, 00:05:31.139 --> 00:05:33.680 so we've established this dense, golden, mathematically 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:36.720 precise canvas. Let's look at the artwork actually 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:39.420 stamped onto this highly durable surface. Because 00:05:39.420 --> 00:05:41.620 there are two sides to this coin, and they present 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:44.259 an astonishing, almost jarring contrast between 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:47.079 two very different historical worlds. They absolutely 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:49.699 do. Let's start with the obverse, commonly known 00:05:49.699 --> 00:05:52.139 as the head side. By tradition, this side is 00:05:52.139 --> 00:05:54.199 reserved for the reigning monarch. So for the 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:56.540 vast majority of this coin's circulatory life, 00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:59.860 from 1988 all the way to 2023, that meant Queen 00:05:59.860 --> 00:06:02.480 Elizabeth II. But even that portrait wasn't static, 00:06:02.620 --> 00:06:04.730 was it? It functioned almost like a slow -moving 00:06:04.730 --> 00:06:07.209 clock of her reign. Yeah, it evolved in distinct 00:06:07.209 --> 00:06:11.230 eras. So from 1988 to 1998, the Mint used a portrait 00:06:11.230 --> 00:06:14.089 sculpted by Raphael McClough. Then they shifted 00:06:14.089 --> 00:06:17.129 to a more mature depiction by Ian Rank, broadly. 00:06:17.470 --> 00:06:20.269 Right. Later in 2019, they introduced an effigy 00:06:20.269 --> 00:06:23.870 by artist Jody Clark. It's basically a chronological 00:06:23.870 --> 00:06:26.089 rotation of artistic interpretation capturing 00:06:26.089 --> 00:06:28.029 the passage of time. And of course, the clock 00:06:28.029 --> 00:06:31.250 keeps ticking. Following her death, 2024 saw 00:06:31.250 --> 00:06:33.709 the debut of King Charles III on the obverse 00:06:33.709 --> 00:06:36.629 designed by Dan Thorne. So on one side of this 00:06:36.629 --> 00:06:40.110 tiny piece of metal, you have the ultimate unyielding 00:06:40.110 --> 00:06:42.860 symbol of British institutional power. a literal 00:06:42.860 --> 00:06:45.220 crown, but then you flip it over to the reverse 00:06:45.220 --> 00:06:47.379 side, the tail side, which was originally designed 00:06:47.379 --> 00:06:49.680 by Horst Hahn, and you are confronted with something 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:52.000 altogether different. You really are. The reverse 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:53.759 side features what was initially intended to 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:56.699 be an archetype of an aboriginal elder. However, 00:06:56.899 --> 00:06:59.180 the specific visual inspiration for this design 00:06:59.180 --> 00:07:02.160 carries profound historical weight. The image 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:04.540 is actually based on a drawing by an artist named 00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:07.279 Ainsley Roberts. And the subject of that drawing 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:10.410 was a man named Goya Changere. who was historically 00:07:10.410 --> 00:07:13.149 known by the moniker One Pound Jimmy. Right. 00:07:13.629 --> 00:07:15.649 Yes. And while he was known by that name in popular 00:07:15.649 --> 00:07:18.069 culture at the time, the true gravity of his 00:07:18.069 --> 00:07:20.670 story comes from the fact that Jungari was a 00:07:20.670 --> 00:07:24.189 Warlpiri and Mataraman from the Northern Territory. 00:07:24.610 --> 00:07:26.810 Crucially, the Wikipedia article notes that he 00:07:26.810 --> 00:07:29.810 was one of the few survivors of the 1928 Coniston 00:07:29.810 --> 00:07:32.230 massacre. Which was one of the last recognized 00:07:32.230 --> 00:07:35.079 massacres of Aboriginal people. perpetrated by 00:07:35.079 --> 00:07:37.540 British authorities in central Australia. Exactly. 00:07:37.879 --> 00:07:40.660 What's fascinating here is the stark objective 00:07:40.660 --> 00:07:43.139 duality resting right in the palm of your hand. 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:45.740 On one side of the single coin, you have the 00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:48.399 reigning monarch of the British Empire. On the 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:50.860 literal other side. permanently bound to the 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:53.339 same piece of metal, you have a man who survived 00:07:53.339 --> 00:07:55.720 a massacre perpetrated by the forces of that 00:07:55.720 --> 00:07:58.100 very same empire. That is just an extraordinary 00:07:58.100 --> 00:08:00.439 historical tension. It really is. And the design 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:02.879 surrounds him with the Southern Cross constellation 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:06.420 and native glass trees anchoring his image entirely 00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:09.379 to the Australian landscape. It is, you know, 00:08:09.699 --> 00:08:11.459 incredibly heavy when you actually stop to think 00:08:11.459 --> 00:08:14.110 about it. And it makes me want to ask you. and 00:08:14.110 --> 00:08:17.290 our learner listening, how does a deeply tragic 00:08:17.290 --> 00:08:20.769 historical event like the Coniston massacre become 00:08:20.769 --> 00:08:23.550 memorialized on the most common item of daily 00:08:23.550 --> 00:08:26.709 commerce? Like when this coin is carelessly exchanged 00:08:26.709 --> 00:08:29.209 for a pack of gum or left as a tip on a cafe 00:08:29.209 --> 00:08:32.490 table, does that constant mundane transaction 00:08:32.490 --> 00:08:35.990 trivialize his story? Or does stamping his face 00:08:35.990 --> 00:08:38.450 into a metal designed to outlast us all somehow 00:08:38.450 --> 00:08:42.029 immortalize it? That's, I mean, it raises an 00:08:42.029 --> 00:08:43.830 important question about the function of public 00:08:43.830 --> 00:08:45.649 memorials, doesn't it? Yeah. There is certainly 00:08:45.649 --> 00:08:47.730 an argument that placing profound historical 00:08:47.730 --> 00:08:50.669 trauma onto pocket change risks diminishing its 00:08:50.669 --> 00:08:53.350 gravity through sheer repetition. Yeah. But the 00:08:53.350 --> 00:08:55.590 alternative perspective is that it guarantees 00:08:55.590 --> 00:08:58.690 unprecedented visibility. It ensures that Goya 00:08:58.690 --> 00:09:00.990 Tsenggeroi's face and the broader history of 00:09:00.990 --> 00:09:03.529 Aboriginal resilience is interacted with by millions 00:09:03.529 --> 00:09:06.250 of people every single day. It weaves that history 00:09:06.250 --> 00:09:08.610 into the literal fabric of the nation's economy. 00:09:08.889 --> 00:09:11.230 That's a really powerful way to look at it. Interestingly, 00:09:11.470 --> 00:09:13.870 the source notes that the designer, Horse Han, 00:09:14.049 --> 00:09:16.549 had his initials included on the coins minted 00:09:16.549 --> 00:09:20.850 in 1988 and 1989. But from 1990 onwards, those 00:09:20.850 --> 00:09:23.450 initials were removed. Oh, so the artwork ceased 00:09:23.450 --> 00:09:26.370 to be an artist's personal creation and just 00:09:26.370 --> 00:09:28.809 became a permanent cultural symbol. Exactly. 00:09:28.929 --> 00:09:31.529 It stands entirely on its own as a national emblem 00:09:31.529 --> 00:09:35.529 now. Wow. So for decades, that incredibly solemn 00:09:35.529 --> 00:09:38.970 duality was the only version of the $2 coin spinning 00:09:38.970 --> 00:09:42.230 through the economy. But then we hit this massive 00:09:42.230 --> 00:09:45.629 turning point. The Royal Australian Mint seemingly 00:09:45.629 --> 00:09:47.889 realizes that this highly durable piece of metal 00:09:47.889 --> 00:09:50.110 doesn't just have to be a static monument. It 00:09:50.110 --> 00:09:53.470 can be a dynamic evolving canvas. And we enter 00:09:53.470 --> 00:09:55.789 what I like to call the era of color. Oh, this 00:09:55.789 --> 00:09:58.669 is a true watershed moment in 2012. The Mint 00:09:58.669 --> 00:10:01.549 released a special $2 coin to commemorate Remembrance 00:10:01.549 --> 00:10:03.950 Day. The standard design featured a poppy flower 00:10:03.950 --> 00:10:06.450 with the words, Lest We Forget, but they took 00:10:06.450 --> 00:10:08.669 this unprecedented step. What'd they do? They 00:10:08.669 --> 00:10:11.409 released a limited run of 500 ,000 coins where 00:10:11.409 --> 00:10:13.909 the center poppy was physically painted red with 00:10:13.909 --> 00:10:16.649 a black core. This was Australia's very first 00:10:16.649 --> 00:10:19.149 colored circulating coin. I have to pause here 00:10:19.149 --> 00:10:21.009 because the engineering required to pull that 00:10:21.009 --> 00:10:23.190 off is just staggering. We just talked about 00:10:23.190 --> 00:10:24.950 how these coins live in pockets with keys, they 00:10:24.950 --> 00:10:26.850 get dropped on concrete, they go through washing 00:10:26.850 --> 00:10:30.429 machines. The mint had to figure out how to apply 00:10:30.429 --> 00:10:33.309 pigment to a mass circulating piece of metal 00:10:33.309 --> 00:10:36.169 so that the color actually survives the violence 00:10:36.169 --> 00:10:38.549 of daily commerce. And they proved it could be 00:10:38.549 --> 00:10:42.289 done. The red poppy survived circulation. And 00:10:42.289 --> 00:10:44.649 once they successfully demonstrated that durability, 00:10:45.350 --> 00:10:47.889 the floodgates of design completely opened. It's 00:10:47.889 --> 00:10:49.409 like they realized they could turn the national 00:10:49.409 --> 00:10:52.230 currency into, you know, highly durable circulating 00:10:52.230 --> 00:10:54.889 trading cards. Yeah. The evolution is rapid. 00:10:55.389 --> 00:10:58.960 Just a year later, In 2013, they release a coin 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:01.720 with a purple circle for the 60th anniversary 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:04.240 of the Queen's coronation. Thematically, they 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:06.360 stayed in that solemn commemorative space for 00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:09.440 a few years. In 2014 and 2015, for the centenary 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:13.220 of ANZAC and to honor the poem In Flanders Fields, 00:11:13.580 --> 00:11:16.419 we see intricate colored designs, green doves, 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:19.320 red stripes. They even managed to print a sunset 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:22.480 orange sky onto the medal. But then... They take 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:25.600 a hard left turn away from military anniversaries. 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:28.000 And this is where it gets incredibly fun. They 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:30.139 realize the power of distribution. They start 00:11:30.139 --> 00:11:32.399 partnering directly with Woolworth supermarkets 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:34.980 to release the coins. Yeah, it becomes super 00:11:34.980 --> 00:11:37.879 mainstream. Right. In 2016, they drop a series 00:11:37.879 --> 00:11:40.120 for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics featuring 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:43.490 the bright Olympic ring colors. In 2017, they 00:11:43.490 --> 00:11:46.090 do a whole series based on the beloved children's 00:11:46.090 --> 00:11:48.529 book, Possum Magic. And the color palettes become 00:11:48.529 --> 00:11:51.409 wildly complex at this point. We're seeing vibrant 00:11:51.409 --> 00:11:54.929 pinks, purples, blues, and navy circulating out 00:11:54.929 --> 00:11:56.850 in the wild. Here's where it really peaks for 00:11:56.850 --> 00:12:00.129 me. Okay. In 2019, they literally put Mr. Squiggle, 00:12:00.429 --> 00:12:02.809 a character, with a pencil for a nose from a 00:12:02.809 --> 00:12:05.350 classic children's TV show, onto the legal tender 00:12:05.350 --> 00:12:07.659 of a sovereign nation. It's brilliant. We're 00:12:07.659 --> 00:12:09.980 talking about turquoise, yellow, and bright pink 00:12:09.980 --> 00:12:12.440 coins being handed back to you as change when 00:12:12.440 --> 00:12:14.840 you buy groceries. And more recently, they've 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:17.460 done cherry blossoms for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 00:12:18.019 --> 00:12:20.320 bright orange for firefighters, and a deeply 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:23.000 striking black, red, and yellow design for the 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:26.100 Aboriginal flag in 2021. If we look at the behavioral 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:29.379 economics of this shift, it is remarkable. Introducing 00:12:29.379 --> 00:12:32.259 vibrant color combined with those limited run 00:12:32.259 --> 00:12:34.399 distribution deals through supermarket tills, 00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:37.559 it completely rewired the public's relationship 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:40.840 with the coin. How so? Well, it took people who 00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:43.179 were entirely passive spenders and turned them 00:12:43.179 --> 00:12:45.840 into active, obsessive collectors practically 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:47.639 overnight. Oh, people started hoarding their 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:50.159 change. They did. The velocity of money actually 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:52.500 slowed down in this specific denomination because 00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:55.559 people refused to spend the colorful ones. The 00:12:55.559 --> 00:12:58.340 currency became a nationwide treasure hunt, which 00:12:58.340 --> 00:13:01.620 perfectly sets up the sheer logistical nightmare 00:13:01.620 --> 00:13:04.200 of how these coins actually get into our pockets 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:07.419 because these colorful collectible disks don't 00:13:07.419 --> 00:13:10.620 just magically manifest in cash registers. There 00:13:10.620 --> 00:13:13.340 is a massive industrial machine dictating supply 00:13:13.340 --> 00:13:16.200 and the Wikipedia data on the minting figures 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:19.320 reveals some completely fascinating, quirky economics. 00:13:19.580 --> 00:13:22.259 Yeah, everything traces back to the Royal Australian 00:13:22.259 --> 00:13:24.580 Mint in Canberra. That is the sole facility. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:26.500 where every one of these coins has ever been 00:13:26.500 --> 00:13:29.200 struck. The logistical scale of replacing the 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:31.840 paper note back in 1988 is hard to overstate. 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:35.220 Right. To ensure a smooth transition and prevent 00:13:35.220 --> 00:13:38.019 a currency shortage, they had to absolutely flood 00:13:38.019 --> 00:13:42.940 the market. They minted a staggering 160 .9 million 00:13:42.940 --> 00:13:46.139 two dollar coins in that first year alone. 160 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:49.179 .9 million. Just try to visualize that mountain 00:13:49.179 --> 00:13:51.740 of heavy metal just injecting thousands of tons 00:13:51.740 --> 00:13:54.350 of copper and aluminium into the economy. simultaneously, 00:13:54.350 --> 00:13:57.710 and that massive initial drop created a fascinating 00:13:57.710 --> 00:14:00.389 long -term ripple effect. It really did. Because 00:14:00.389 --> 00:14:02.809 they over -indexed so heavily in 1988, by the 00:14:02.809 --> 00:14:05.690 time 1991 rolled around, the market was completely 00:14:05.690 --> 00:14:07.769 saturated. There were just too many coins. So 00:14:07.769 --> 00:14:10.330 how many standard $2 coins did the mint produce 00:14:10.330 --> 00:14:13.470 for general circulation in 1991? Exactly zero. 00:14:13.529 --> 00:14:15.789 Not a single one. Wow. And that anomaly isn't 00:14:15.789 --> 00:14:17.769 just ancient history either. It repeated itself 00:14:17.769 --> 00:14:20.509 very recently. In 2023, there were again zero 00:14:20.509 --> 00:14:23.129 standard $2 coins minted for circulation. That's 00:14:23.129 --> 00:14:25.590 crazy. To give you a baseline for how dramatic 00:14:25.590 --> 00:14:28.389 that drop is, the source notes that the average 00:14:28.389 --> 00:14:31.450 mintage from 1989 to 2008 usually sat around 00:14:31.450 --> 00:14:34.590 22 million per year. So going from 22 million 00:14:34.590 --> 00:14:37.409 to absolute zero illustrates just how meticulously 00:14:37.409 --> 00:14:39.450 the mint has to monitor the physical wear and 00:14:39.450 --> 00:14:42.129 tear or the hoarding behaviors of the public 00:14:42.129 --> 00:14:45.389 just to balance the supply. It is a logistical 00:14:45.389 --> 00:14:48.580 high wire act. But speaking of the rules of the 00:14:48.580 --> 00:14:51.240 game, there is one legal rule in the Wikipedia 00:14:51.240 --> 00:14:53.539 article that we have to discuss because it sounds 00:14:53.539 --> 00:14:56.019 completely made up. The legal tender limit. Yes, 00:14:56.179 --> 00:14:58.440 there is a strict legal tender limit on the $2 00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:01.700 coin. By law, you cannot pay a debt using $2 00:15:01.700 --> 00:15:04.360 coins if the total amount exceeds 10 times the 00:15:04.360 --> 00:15:06.860 face value of the coin, meaning the maximum amount 00:15:06.860 --> 00:15:08.580 you can legally force someone to accept in $2 00:15:08.580 --> 00:15:11.519 coins in a single transaction is $20. Ten coins. 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:14.419 That is the hard legal ceiling. OK, I am pushing 00:15:14.419 --> 00:15:17.320 back on this aggressively. Money is money. If 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:19.779 I owe my mechanic 50 bucks and I hand him a stack 00:15:19.779 --> 00:15:23.340 of 25 legally minted government -approved $2 00:15:23.340 --> 00:15:27.320 coins, why on earth is it baked into the legislation 00:15:27.320 --> 00:15:29.240 of the country that he can refuse my payment? 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:31.779 Is the government literally just trying to save 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:34.759 us from having our pockets ripped open by the 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:37.659 sheer weight of these dense little disks? I know. 00:15:37.700 --> 00:15:40.649 It sounds totally absurd on its face. But if 00:15:40.649 --> 00:15:43.070 we connect this to the bigger picture, legal 00:15:43.070 --> 00:15:45.350 tender laws are not just about defining what 00:15:45.350 --> 00:15:47.809 has value. They are fundamentally designed to 00:15:47.809 --> 00:15:50.590 prevent economic friction. The law exists to 00:15:50.590 --> 00:15:52.669 prevent people from weaponizing heavy coinage. 00:15:53.230 --> 00:15:55.970 Weaponizing coinage. Yes. Imagine a scenario 00:15:55.970 --> 00:15:58.090 where a disgruntled citizen decides to pay off 00:15:58.090 --> 00:16:01.629 a $10 ,000 municipal tax debt entirely in $2 00:16:01.629 --> 00:16:04.230 coins just to spite the local government. Oh 00:16:04.230 --> 00:16:06.789 my gosh. That transaction would require wheelbarrows. 00:16:06.909 --> 00:16:09.210 It would require multiple bank tellers hours 00:16:09.210 --> 00:16:11.809 of manual labor just to count and verify the 00:16:11.809 --> 00:16:14.409 payment. It grinds the efficiency of everyday 00:16:14.409 --> 00:16:16.789 trade to an absolute halt. Okay, when you put 00:16:16.789 --> 00:16:19.990 it that way. Right. So the $20 limit ensures 00:16:19.990 --> 00:16:22.789 that while the coin holds valid economic value, 00:16:23.169 --> 00:16:25.190 it cannot be used as an administrative weapon 00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:28.389 to harass a creditor. Legal tender simply means 00:16:28.389 --> 00:16:30.710 a creditor is legally obligated to accept it 00:16:30.710 --> 00:16:33.450 to clear debt. This law protects the creditor 00:16:33.450 --> 00:16:35.909 from being buried in copper. That is brilliant. 00:16:36.210 --> 00:16:39.149 The fact that weaponizing heavy craneage is a 00:16:39.149 --> 00:16:41.590 legitimate economic threat that requires parliamentary 00:16:41.590 --> 00:16:45.129 legislation just adds to the mythos of this little 00:16:45.129 --> 00:16:48.370 coin. So let's step back and look at the incredible 00:16:48.370 --> 00:16:50.570 journey we've just taken learner. We started 00:16:50.570 --> 00:16:53.590 with a dry economic need to replace a fragile, 00:16:53.710 --> 00:16:56.669 easily destroyed paper note because it was costing 00:16:56.669 --> 00:16:59.070 the government too much money. Yeah. And that 00:16:59.070 --> 00:17:01.149 utilitarian requirement resulted in the engineering 00:17:01.149 --> 00:17:04.130 of a physically tiny, surprisingly dense golden 00:17:04.130 --> 00:17:06.750 disk with mathematically milled edges designed 00:17:06.750 --> 00:17:09.210 to trick vending machines. And that purely functional 00:17:09.210 --> 00:17:11.509 piece of metal accidentally evolved into one 00:17:11.509 --> 00:17:13.529 of the most dynamic cultural canvases in the 00:17:13.529 --> 00:17:16.049 country. I mean, it holds the solemn permanent 00:17:16.049 --> 00:17:18.529 historical tension of the British monarchy resting 00:17:18.529 --> 00:17:21.339 back to back. with Goya Chungarai, a survivor 00:17:21.339 --> 00:17:24.420 of devastating colonial violence. It then pioneered 00:17:24.420 --> 00:17:26.920 color printing technology that survived washing 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:29.880 machines, turning everyday grocery shoppers into 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:32.980 avid numismatic hoarders. It celebrated everything 00:17:32.980 --> 00:17:35.740 from the solemnity of war veterans to the sheer 00:17:35.740 --> 00:17:39.279 joy of Pasa Magic and Mr. Squiggle. And crucially, 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:41.640 we learned that you are legally barred from using 00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:44.400 a wheelbarrow full of them to pay off your mortgage. 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:47.079 It is an almost unbelievable amount of history, 00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:50.200 physics, and utility packed into 6 .6 grams of 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.700 metal. It really is. So the next time you reach 00:17:52.700 --> 00:17:54.859 into your pocket or you look at that loose change 00:17:54.859 --> 00:17:57.279 resting in your car's cup holder, remember what 00:17:57.279 --> 00:17:59.779 you are actually looking at. You aren't just 00:17:59.779 --> 00:18:02.019 holding transactional currency. You are holding 00:18:02.019 --> 00:18:05.200 a highly engineered, deeply storied piece of 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:08.339 an entire nation's identity. But Lerner, I want 00:18:08.339 --> 00:18:10.599 to leave you with one final provocative thought 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:13.759 to mull over today. We established early on that 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:16.500 the $2 coin was born entirely because it had 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:19.220 a longer physical circulatory life than a paper 00:18:19.220 --> 00:18:22.019 note. Its physical permanence was its entire 00:18:22.019 --> 00:18:25.299 reason for being. But as we accelerate closer 00:18:25.299 --> 00:18:28.700 and closer toward a fully cashless society, a 00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:31.400 world where we just tap our phones and the physical 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:34.259 longevity of currency no longer matters, what 00:18:34.259 --> 00:18:36.859 happens to this incredible storytelling medium? 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:38.960 That's a great question. When the coins eventually 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:42.039 stop circulating, does this portable tactile 00:18:42.039 --> 00:18:44.460 history, you know, the colored poppies, the tributes 00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:46.839 to aboriginal resilience, the faces we carry 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:49.539 in our pockets, does it just vanish into vaults? 00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:53.089 Or will we find a new, equally pervasive way 00:18:53.089 --> 00:18:54.950 to hold onto our history? Something to think 00:18:54.950 --> 00:18:57.309 about. Definitely. Thank you so much for joining 00:18:57.309 --> 00:18:59.650 us on this deep dive. Keep asking questions. 00:19:00.009 --> 00:19:01.829 Keep looking closely at the everyday objects 00:19:01.829 --> 00:19:04.009 hiding in plain sight around you. And we'll see 00:19:04.009 --> 00:19:04.490 you next time.