By Ewan Gilbert and Penny McLintock
Posted
A 13-year-old Sydney teenager has collected the first coin of 2013 after camping outside the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra for four days.
Harley Russo was one of hundreds of people queued outside the mint this morning to be among the first to mint a coin in the new year.
The teenager also won a lottery at the mint to strike the last coin of 2012.
Harley says it was fun camping out over the weekend with his three brothers.
"It's really exciting and overwhelming," he said.
"You play some games and spend time with the family."
Harley has been collecting coins for three years, and says he has spent about $5,000 on his collection of more than 50 coins.
He became interested in coins after being given some coins that belonged to his grandfather.
He wants to return to the mint in a few years time for the 50th anniversary of decimal currency.
Royal Australian Mint CEO Ross MacDiarmid says Harley's collection is already quite valuable.
"The combination of those two, the last and the first, would be worth a lot of money. So my suggestion to him would be to hang onto it for as long as you can," he said.
The first four people through the door were under the age of 15, with collectors keen to get their hands on coins marking the bicentenary of Australia's first coins - the holey dollar and dump.
The first holey dollars and dumps were struck in 1813 from Spanish eight reale coins to provide a stable currency in New South Wales.
"I think it's all about being the first," Mr MacDiarmid said.
"The theme this year is actually the bicentenary of the holey dollar and dump. So I suspect that's been the attraction as well as of course being here to be one of the first who can mint a coin in the world."
Mr MacDiarmid says coin collecting is thriving in Australia.
"It's an amazing hobby. It seems to be growing," he said.
"When I first joined I was a little bit worried that a lot of the collectors weren't necessarily going to survive, just the nature the way the world is. But we're seeing a lot of young people now coming in to become collectors. So from our point of view that's great.
"A combination of themes, a combination of the unique coins being produced means people are looking to get hold of some of these coins."
Mr MacDiarmid says the mint aims to produce about 60 themed coins for the collector market each year.
He says a Slim Dusty coin, a curved coin and a coloured circulation coin are planned for 2013.
Topics: human-interest, act, canberra-2600, sydney-2000
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