Philatelic Numismatic Covers (PNCs)  by  Rod Sell.

The first Australian PNC issued by the RAM and Australia Post was in 1994 with the Year of the Family 50 cent coin.  Members may remember this 50c coin with the stick figures.  We later discovered that the 50c Year of the Family coin had two varieties.  The one with a wider space in 1994 was the scarcer variety.  However the coins with the narrower 1994 are the scarcer variety in the PNCs.  Mintage for both is 148,393


In 1995 the PNC was Australia Remembers with the Weary Dunlop 50cent.

My first PNC was a coin cover issued by Australia Post & the RAM in 1997 for Living Legends featuring Don Bradman.  It contained a $5 bimetallic coin of Don Bradman.  The $5 Bradman bimetallic had been issued in 1996. 
To obtain one with the 1997 date you had to purchase the PNC.  Mintage is 275,000

PNCs continued to be issued with a few each year.  It was only since 2000 that they have become very collectable as many of the enclosed coins and medals are only available from these covers.

The year 2000 For Valour - Victoria Cross $1 coin was issued in a special mint pack and also in a PNC. 
This coin is very difficult to obtain and the PNCs now sell for $350.  Mintage 48,830

2001 was the Centenary of Federation and thus the Centenary of the Australian Army and Navy. Centenary $1 coins were issued in a pack for each Service, as well as in an Army PNC.  PNC mintage was 27,209 and it now sells for $140

2002 saw the 50^th Anniversary of the Queen’s Accession.  A special 50 cent coin was struck and was to be released into general circulation.  A PNC was released with the coin.  The coin was never released into circulation as there were sufficient 50c coins in stock, so the PNC was the only way to get one for your collection.  This coin now sells for over $300.  Mintage 32,102

The Perth Mint joined the issue in 2004 with a Eureka Stockade PNC $5 coin.


The 2006 Queen's Birthday PNC featured a coloured $1 coin.

In recent years Australia Post has limited the number of PNCs to 15,000 and this has resulted in them selling out on the first day of issue and an active secondary market. 

2008 was the 90th Anniversary of the End of WW II and a PNC was issued.

2009 was the bicentenary of Australia Post and they issued two PNCs to celebrate, including this one with a coloured $1 coin of Isaac Nichols the first postmaster.

Another 2009 PNC was for the International Day of Astronomy, with it’s special $1 coin.

2010 was the Centenary of Australian coins and a PNC with the C mintmark $1 coin was issued.


November 2010 saw the running of the 150th Melbourne Cup and a PNC with a special 50c coin was produced to mark this occasion.


I had a lot of difficulty getting a 2010 Lachlan Macquarie 200^th Anniversary PNC.

It retails for over $30 and has a mintage of 15,000.

One Australian PNC that seems to get very little mention is that for the 1st March 2011 Geelong Airshow. 
It features a F-111 medal.  Mintage was only 10,000


The Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee this year.  On the 3rd April a PNC was released for this occasion with a special 50c Diamond Jubilee coin.

The ANZAC DAY 2012 ONC included the Lest We Forget $1 coin for the nursing staff who attended the troops.


Whilst scanning EBAY for coins covers I discovered many on offer in the UK, which had also been issuing them for the past 20 years.  The Royal Mint and Royal Mail have been producing them over the past 15 years.  In initially I only chased the ones with the bimetallic two pound coins.  Since then I have tried to obtain any that I did not have.

Since I collect bimetallics. I was happy to find a series of 15 covers produced by Benham’s in 2002 for the introduction of the Euro.  In 2002 when the euro currency was introduced the 12 countries with the common currency issued coins with a similar reverse.  Coins were also issued by Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican in very small numbers.  I had visions that I had found a way to obtain these coins for a reasonable price.  The 2002 Vatican set sold on EBAY for over US$1,000 and I still don’t have any Vatican euros.

I finally managed to win all 15 sets over a period of 6 weeks.  I was disappointed to find the Monaco set had coins from France,

the Vatican set had coins from Italy and there was no San Marino set. 

The 15^th set was from ALAND an island in the Baltic Sea belonging to Finland and had Finland coins.

I also found other coin cover series had been issued in the 1980s. 
These were Coins of All Nations which was a product of the Franklin Mint.  

Belgium

Rwanda

Greece

Surinam

Another series was Coins of the World which were produced for the English and German markets. 
I have been advised this series was produced in Switzerland.

Afghanistan



Albania



Austria

Another series was issued by the WWF and these contain stamps and silver medals for many animals. 
I noticed some of the covers had different stamps.

Panther 5c & 10c stamps from Belize



Mandarin Duck 20 chon stamps from North Korea




Cranes

I then discovered a Bank Note series with Notes from all Nations.  There are several different producers with different cover sizes and formats, although the notes enclosed is the same in many cases, probably the lowest value note available.

I always had a desire to collect War Medals, however reality quickly set in that they were well beyond my very limited finances.  So when I discovered that Benham’s had produced a series in conjunction with the United Services charity which had full sized replica medals, the hunt was on.


I now have nearly 70 covers with all the medals.  The Nile Campaign medal for the relief of Khartoum was especially hard to find and took me many years.



A new series bt Mercury with miniatures has appeared recently and I am in the process of finding more.

PNCs lend themselves to thematic collecting.
Football, the game with the round ball, is a very popular theme on the covers and I must have 50 or more covers from around the world.  Royalty is also very popular, and European Royalty feature on many covers.

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