Coins and Australia - Five dollar 2002 - Australian coins price guide and values

Five dollar 2002 - Comm. Games

Five dollar 2002 - Year of the Outback

The Royal Australian Mint released in November 2001, the first 2002 dated Collector coin sets which commemorates the Year of the Outback in 2002. Read more »

Five dollar 2002 - Battle of Sunda Strait - UNC (Bi-metal)

Aluminium bronze centre surrounded by a stainless steel ring and comes in a credit card sized plastic holder inside a pictorial sleeve, the coin was designed by Mint Designer Vladimir Gottwald.

During the battle, two Allied warships, cruisers HMAS Perth and USS Houston, after escaping from the Battle of the Java Sea, were seeking safe passage through Sunda Strait, when they encountered an enemy invasion fleet of some 80 odd vessels. HMAS Perth and USS Houston, though surrounded, fought valiantly until out of ammunition and severely damaged, were sunk within 20 minutes of one another in the early hours of I March 1942.

In the battle there were heavy losses from Perth with 350 naval personnel, including Captain 'Hec' Waller and three civilians, out of the ship's original complement of 681 crew, losing their lives. Four died ashore and another 106 died in captivity leaving only 214 personnel to be repatriated to Australia after enduring more than three years of privation and suffering as prisoners of war.

Similarly the Houston suffered severe loss of life in the part she played in this one sided battle. Of her crew, numbering 1065 on board at the commencement of the battle, just 368 survived the tragic sinking to become prisoners of war with only 288 surviving the horrors of the infamous Burma Railway.

Five dollar 2002 - Queen Mother

The design highlights the Queen Mother's connections with Australia, depicting her as a young woman on her first visit to Australia in 1927. She travelled to Australia as Duchess of York with the then Duke of York, who later became King George VI, in 1927 visiting many parts of Australia as well as South Australia. It was during this visit that the Duke opened Australia's, then new Parliament building, in Canberra in May 1927.

The design on the coin is based on a photograph of the Duchess of York (as she then was) attending the Adelaide Cup at the Morphetville Race Course, South Australia, in early May 1927. The photograph shows her smiling happily as she watches the proceedings, with the Duke of York sitting next to her together with other South Australian dignitaries. In her gloved hands is a pair of binoculars used to watch the races that day.

Surrounding the image of the Queen Mother is a circle of Australian wattle blossoms intertwined with 'Elizabeth of Glamis' rose blooms.

Five dollar 2002 - Battle of Sunda Strait - Proof (Bronze)

Part of the bi-annual $5 face value series commemorating Australian history, culture and ideas. This one is an aluminium bronze proof finish coin which depicts the forward sections of the Perth and the Houston. It retailed for $35.00 and was housed in a jewellery style presentation case with an attractive outer box and includes an Authenticity Certificate signed by the Controller of the Mint.

Five dollar 2002 - Comm. Games - KM-649

Five dollar 2002 - Comm. Games - KM-650

Five dollar 2002 - Comm. Games - Logo

The Royal Australian Mint released collector coins to celebrate Australia's participation in the 17th Commonwealth Games in Manchester in July and August 2002.

Five dollar 2002 - Duyfken

It was the Duyfken, on a pioneering voyage from the Spice Islands (Indonesia) in 1606, that is recognised as the first known European contact with the Australian continent and the first recorded meeting between Europeans and Indigenous Australians - nearly 170 years before James Cook.

Duyfken was built in Holland about 1598 as a scout ship (jacht) to test the waters, like the dove from Noah's Ark, for the larger ships of the Dutch spice fleet. The vessel made two voyages from the Netherlands to the East Indies, but it was under Captain Willem Janszoon that the little ship ended up in what is known today as the Gulf of Carpenteria.

Janszoon made the first charts of Australia's coastline and recorded the western shore of Cape York Peninsula. The crew also went ashore, 30 km north of today's Weipa in Queensland, and made the first recorded contact with the natives. However, the dramatic clash of cultures meant the first landing of the 'Little Dove' on Australian shores was far from peaceful. A replica of Duyfken, built in Fremantle WA, retraced the Janszoon's historic voyage in 2000.

Five dollar 2002 - HM Bark Endeavour

Built in Western Australia is a replica of the HMB Endeavour, a name which has become synonymous with the dawn of British claims and future colonisation of the Australian continent.

Although now a legendary vessel in nautical history, the original Endeavour had humble beginnings. The boxy vessel was originally called the Earl of Pembroke and was built for transporting coal. However, her sturdy and roomy frame was considered ideal for grander ocean voyages so she was refitted and rechristened to become an icon.

Five dollar 2002 - HMS Investigator

The vessel in which noted explorer Matthew Flinders completed the first circumnavigation of the Australian continent, sailing around Australia one and a half times.

Commencing in Cape Leeuwin WA, Flinders' odyssey to chart the Australian coastline took two years from 1801-1803 and proved that New Holland and New South Wales were one land mass. Notably, Flinders was also the first to consistently call the continent 'Australia.'

Five dollar 2002 - HMS Sirius Voyages

HMS Sirius, the flagship of Captain Arthur Phillip's First Fleet, began life under low exalted circumstances. Originally known as Berwick, it was an armed storeship for the East India trade before its leading role in bringing the first boatloads of convicts, marine officers and sailors to Australia's east coast to establish a prison colony.

After the chartered ships of the First Fleet returned to England, Sirius stayed on and proved a lifeline to the struggling colony by journeying to Cape Town and back for desperately needed supplies.