There are all sorts of coins – both circulated and non-circulated – being spat out of the self-serve cash registers at Coles these days.

I’ve collected quite a number over the past six months, and there has been a sharp increase over the last week or two – which has prompted me to write this report. I keep finding one-dollar coins belonging to collections, forty-year-old coins shining in near-mint condition, and foreign coins being passed off as Australian currency.

Whenever I find a collectible coin from the auto-checkouts, I place it inside a plastic zip bag before sorting it into an album. The above photo shows around four to five months worth.

I photographed some of the more interesting coins that have come into my possession through these self-serve registers, and they are presented below.

These two are from the ‘Aussie Big Things’ collection from 2023 – and feature The Big Banana at Coffs Harbour and The Giant Murray Cod at Swan Hill ($1 coins).

Two AFL coins from 2024 featuring both men’s and women’s competitions; specifically the medals awarded for Player of the Season ($1 coins).

‘A-Z of Australian Things’ collection. These coins are from different series – with the ‘W for Weet-Bix’ from 2019 and ‘O for Opal’ being released in 2022 ($1 coins).

I come across a lot of these dinosaur coins, but I am yet to find the missing one to complete the set. The series of four was released in 2022 ($1 coins).

This one-dollar coin is also part of a set – I think of four – that was released in 2023.

It also pays to check your silver lower-denominations as well, as this is a 2018 uncirculated twenty-cent coin commemorating the ANZAC one-hundred year anniversary.

All of the above coins were not put into circulation, and could only be purchased from either the Royal Australian Mint, the post office or a coin dealer. However, they are legal tender and can be used for shopping; and evidently this is what’s happening.

For those observant enough to see no monetary value on some of these designs, I can inform you that the amount of ‘one dollar’ appears on their reverse sides. Therefore these are coins, and not ’rounds’.

Now onto some more common – but still collectible – items that I have found.

This is a one dollar coin that was released into circulation back in 2019. It was part of a set of three with different mint marks – ‘A’, ‘U’, and ‘S’ – and was created as a competition or challenge to collect each coin and win prizes from the mint.

This is from the 2001 Centenary of Federation collection. I am finding a lot of these in really good condition, and they are worth keeping an eye out for, as there are different coins – nine altogether – for every state and territory.

This is a New Zealand fifty-cent coin, and is the same size as our ten cent piece. I suppose if anyone wants to trick the self-serve machine into thinking this is an Aussie coin, then fair enough – however its true value would be around forty-five cents.

Here is another foreign coin being used as ten Australian cents, with this one originating from the UAE, as you can clearly see from the markings. I suppose it makes sense that people are using overseas coins, as more often than not they would be worth less than the local currency (unless you’re a Kiwi handing over forty-five cents instead of ten).

In summary, if you are a coin enthusiast it does pay to check the change you are given – especially with what these auto-machines have been dispensing lately.

Therefore, I suspect that there are a lot of hidden treasures inside these checkout machines – at both Coles and Woolworths. With only two or three cash checkouts in each supermarket, the odds of finding a collectible coin are reasonable, but you better be quick before they go 100% cashless!