We get many calls a week from people asking if the $2 coloured coins they’ve found in their change or worth money. The answer from us is most often, “no”. I will detail below why this is the case.
It’s important to realise that some coloured $2 coins have some value. At the time of writing, I would consider the 2012 Red Poppy, 2013 Coronation and 2014 Green Dove coloured $2 coins to have some value. The market is very volatile and for the sake of posterity, I will not offer values, but one can expect the coins to be worth many times their face value of $2.
The first major issue is that most of these coins have been ‘found’ and taken out of circulation. You will often see on TikTok or other social media platforms people ‘noodling’ through coins and claiming they have these amazing values. The reality is that these videos are often made for content and in order to attract viewers, a bit of embellishment goes a long way. If it was possible to make a living by merely going through circulating coins, it would be a relatively popular profession I suspect!
The 2012 Red Poppy, 2013 Coronation and 2014 Green Dove coins also have value due to the fact that they were the earliest coins released. This means that as collectors have come along and started collecting coloured $2 coins, they have been forced to buy the harder-to-find ones. This has increased demand and created a premium for these coins.
Since the inception of the coloured $2 coin program, over 50 varieties have been released by my last count. It is unlikely that newer releases will ever command much of a premium to the sheer supply of coins that are now in the market.
Often, when mintage reports are not finalised, rumours will be spread that a coin is a low mintage coin. Every year there is a theory, every year, the mintage ends up when all is said and done above 1 million coins. These coins then fall back in value.
The reality is that unless you started collecting the coloured $2 coins in 2012, you are unlikely to find anything that has much value. It is possible to find the odd needle in the haystack, but it’s uncommon that you’re coloured $2 coin has any significant value.
Please feel free to email me if you have any questions relating to this article at ensleighcoins@gmail.com