If you have started collecting coins or are thinking about it, this book will be an essential read, while with its breezy informal accounts of all sorts of interesting topical and historical byways, everyone can enjoy it. This is not a technical manual or a numismatic reference book - it will appeal to anybody curious about the coins they handle or collect. But it still comprehensively describes all the Australian coins a domestic collector will want. Coin collecting is undergoing an unprecedented boom through advertising and promotion. There are specialist guides and catalogues available for experts and the already committed but nothing for novices or those simply interested in learning more. So a book intended for general readers is timely and much needed. Coin collecting is now being actively promoted, with discount coupons for new coins appearing annually in Australian daily newspapers and unusual coins being issued through supermarket chains as well as the national mint This book is for everybody, whereas the rest of the currently available coin-related literature so far is technical and designed for a readership already seriously committed and erudite.