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Australia Bilby

2008 Proof Five Dollar

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The Little Dinkums coin collection lovingly celebrates Australia's favourite creatures. The Royal Australian Mint had commissioned artist Ben Hutchings to design six characters for a coin collection named Little Dinkums. They were Petey Platypus, Kip Koala, Kato Cockatoo, Tinga the Tasmanian Tiger, LilyPilly Lizard and finally Binny Bilby. This coin was struck in Gold at a size of just 14mm. The reverse of this coin, designed by the Royal Australian Mint has the cartoon character Binny Bilby depicting the Bilby. It includes the legend 1/25oz 99.99Au 5 DOLLARS. The obverse features the traditional Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, crowned and right facing and is surrounded by the legend ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA 2008. This coin, along with the other three, were sold in individual boxes with the cartoon character emblazoned upon it.

The Bilby is a marsupial which is unique to Australia. Commonly referred to as a rabbit-eared bandicoot, it is found from Western Australia across to Queensland but is now an endangered species. Its habitat has been eroded and subjected to bushfires as well as the introduction of rabbits and grazing animals which compete for its food. There is good news on the horizon though, as a new campaign highlighting its possible extinction has been launched in which it replaces the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bilby will have chocolate replicas too. It has also been bred in captivity and released into the Francois Peron National Park (Shark Bay, 2013) .