20 Cents - Elizabeth II (4th Portrait)

The Australian 20-cent coin featuring the fourth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was introduced into circulation as part of the nation's decimal currency system, which replaced the pound, shilling, and pence structure in 1966. This specific iteration displays the portrait designed by Ian Rank-Broadley, which was introduced to Australian coinage in 1999 to replace the previous design by Raphael Maklouf. Rank-Broadley’s depiction was intended to be a more realistic and mature representation of the monarch, featuring a larger scale on the coin’s obverse to enhance detail.

The reverse of the coin continues to feature the platypus design by Stuart Devlin, an iconic Australian silversmith and designer who was responsible for the original 1966 decimal series artwork. While the obverse design shifted to the Rank-Broadley effigy to align with changes across the Commonwealth, the platypus remains a fixture of Australian fauna representation in the country's currency. The 1999 issue is a standard circulating cupro-nickel coin, widely utilized in daily commerce throughout Australia during the turn of the millennium.