Australia’s Honeybee Coin Named 2022-dated “Best Circulating Coin“
The Royal Australian Mint won the Coin of the Year (COTY) Awards’ “Best Circulating Coin” category for 2022-dated coins. The winning $2 Honeybee coin marks the bicentenary of Australia’s honeybee industry.
Honeybees were introduced to Australia by early European settlers, and the country is now home to 530,000 managed honeybee colonies. According to the Royal Australian Mint, the Honeybee coin also celebrates the remarkable creatures, as well as conscientious beekeepers.
“The intricately-designed and delightfully bright Honey Bee coin celebrated the small, yet mighty honey bee that populates Australia, producing delicious honey and contributing to the country’s agricultural success by pollinating crops,” the Mint wrote in a press statement celebrating the COTY win.
The coin wasdesigned by Aleksandra Stokic. The reverse features an intricated sculptured honeycomb printed in honey-colored ink. Two honeybees surround the circle along with flowers and branches from a wattle tree. The reverse also includes the following lettering: Honeybee and Two Dollars.
The obverse features the 6th crowned portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II facing right, which was designed by Jody Clark. She is wearing the George IV State Diadem and the Victorian Coronation Necklace.
The “best circulating” award quickly became a numismatic anomaly in the COTY series: First, the colored coin did not circulate. It was a collector coin. Second, and more importantly, not long after this coin was issued, “varroa destructor,” a deadly parasite was detected at a port near Sydney. Australia was plagued with these pests, about the size of a sesame seed, that weaken and kill bee colonies.
Since this plague on bees, ecologists found that the importation of the Honeybee to Australia did significant damage to the 800 native bee species that already existed. The honeybee is more competitive than the native bees; are active at lower temperatures and can direct large numbers of bees to sparce areas using their “waggle dance” communication thereby causing a losing battle for survival by other bee species.
Mintage is limited to 60,000 uncirculated coins in a folder and 15,000 rolls of 25. The coin measures 20.5 mm in diameter and weighs 6.6 grams.