New Discovery New Zealand Mule 2004 10c With One Dollar Obverse

In the December 2015 journal of the RNSNZ (Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand Inc) collector Jason Gray wrote an article about a new find. We all remember how New Zealand changed to smaller coins in 2006, well collectors have been focussed on the 2004 5 cent as a low mintage collectable coin and some have collected a variety of the 10c that has an apparent double rim. Only recently has Jason (and other collectors) sought to look further into this double rim…..

What they have found is that the double rim is due to a smaller obverse die –that of the dollar coin! We know back in the year 2000 the Royal Australian Mint made a mistake and paired the mob of roos dollar reverse with the 10 cent obverse creating the now famous Australian mule. For those new to this terminology a ‘mule’ is created when 2 dies are paired that weren’t meant to be used together. Now what we have here is a New Zealand 2004 10 cent mule. Which sees the dollar coin obverse die paired with the regular 10c reverse die.

It’s been determined that the new mule is only found in circulation coins and these were struck by the Royal Mint. It is not found in mint sets which were struck by the Royal Australian Mint. Our member showed examples at the monthly meeting of the Australian mule and the newly discovered New Zealand mule.