‘Great Aussie Coin Hunt’ a boon for brands, with Vegemite, Iced VoVos and Zooper Doopers scoring their own $1 coins

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Australia’s postal service has released a series of commemorative $1 coins featuring images of the long-running television soap Neighbours, the word “g’day” and a mythical ape-like creature called a yowie.

Australian $50 note typo: spelling mistake printed 46 million times Read more

The promotion, concocted by Australia Post and the Royal Australian Mint, is an A-Z of what it calls an “iconic reflection of Aussie life” and offers an eclectic mix of new companions for Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II on Australia’s currency.

They include a meat pie, a “footy” and the quokka – a small marsupial native to the islands off Western Australia known to sometimes sacrifice its young when threatened by predators by ejecting them from its pouch.

Coming just a few months after 46 million of the country’s new $50 notes were printed with a typo, the coins, Australia Post’s Nicole Sheffield said, offered “the opportunity for wonderful conversations about quintessential Australian life”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The humble meat pie joins the Queen on one of Australia’s new $1 coins. Photograph: Supplied/The Mint

“It’s a great way for grandparents to connect with grandchildren, and for all of us to share our own experiences and memories with each other – both here and with friends and family overseas,” she said following their release.

Besides the self-evidently Australian inclusions – the kangaroo features, as does the platypus (which is already on Australia’s 20c coin) – others may cause confusion for any international guest interested in joining what Australia Post is marketing as “the Great Aussie Coin Hunt”.

The yowie, for example, which has its roots in Indigenous folklore, is a mythical creature said to inhabit the Australian outback. Roughly akin to Big Foot, “yowie hunters” regularly claim sightings of the creature and have become their own sub-genre of curiosity story.

The inclusion of thongs – Australia’s term for the flip-flop – may also create confusion for visitors.

The promotion is also a boon for American-owned company Arnott’s Biscuits and the Seventh Day Adventist Church-owned company Sanitarium; the coins feature the Arnott’s-owned biscuit the Iced VoVo and Sanitarium’s breakfast cereal Weet-Bix. Other brands, including Vegemite and the Zooper Dooper ice block, also feature.

The township of Xantippe – located about 240 kilometres north of Perth in Western Australia with a population of 20 people – was included because it is the only town in Australia which starts with X.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest There’s even a new coin for the yowie hunters out there. Photograph: Supplied/The Mint

Despite being marketed as a hunt, the coins are only available as change at Australia Post stores, leading one Twitter user to ask the obvious question: “what can you actually buy from Australia Post?”

Australia Post suggested a sewing machine.

“Need some new stationery? A phone charger? Some lollies? Maybe an airbed or a sewing machine?” Australia Post replied.

“There are a surprising array of gifts and goodies at your local Post Office these days.”