The Mob of Six Roos has reached the Royal Australian Mint’s collector coins. The 2026 Kangaroo Series arrived in gold and silver on 6 August, and for this year the reverse is not a new kangaroo scene but a national icon quietly altered: a sixth animal added to Stuart Devlin’s five kangaroo composition, one for each decade since Australia abandoned pounds, shillings and pence on 14 February 1966. Three coins carry the design, a $1 one ounce silver frosted uncirculated, a $1 one ounce silver proof, and a $10 gold proof struck in a tenth of an ounce.
Australians have already met this design. It belongs to the Mint’s 2026 annual theme, the 60th anniversary of Australian decimal currency, and Mob of Six Roos dollars began entering circulation in the last week of January, with every 2026 dated $1 coin reaching the tills carrying it. What the August release offers is the cabinet version of a coin most of the country has been handling all year, struck to proof and frosted uncirculated standards and capped at 10,000, 5,000 and 3,000 pieces respectively.
The Mob of Six Roos Design
The composition is the familiar one at a glance. Five kangaroos in Devlin’s original arrangement, with the denomination worked into the field below them: 1 DOLLAR on the silver, 10 DOLLARS on the gold. The sixth animal bounds across the top of the group, above and slightly apart from the mob, close enough to belong and separate enough to be noticed. It is a small intervention into one of the most reproduced pieces of Australian design, and the restraint is the point. The obverse carries Dan Thorne’s effigy of King Charles III with the legend CHARLES III · AUSTRALIA · 2026.
Six kangaroos for six decades is the kind of arithmetic that could easily have become a date, a wreath or a commemorative legend. The Mint chose instead to let the count do the work, which means the anniversary is legible only to someone who already knows what the coin is supposed to look like.
Stuart Devlin’s Mob of Roos and the 2026 Exception
Planning for an Australian dollar coin began in the mid 1970s, driven by two practical problems: the country needed a higher value coin that vending machines could handle, and the one dollar note was wearing out too quickly to be economical. Stuart Devlin, who had already given Australia the reverses of the 1c, 2c, 5c, 20c and 50c, was commissioned and returned with five kangaroos. Introduced on 14 May 1984, the Mob of Roos has run continuously ever since.
That continuity is what makes 2026 unusual. For 42 years the mob has been fixed at five, surviving every change of royal effigy and every reworking of Australia’s circulating coinage around it. Production reverts to the original five kangaroo design from 2027, which gives the sixth roo a single calendar year of existence and gives collectors a type that cannot be built up over time.
How the 2026 Kangaroo Series Breaks Its Own Pattern
The Kangaroo Series has run since 1993, and its usual method is the opposite of this one. Each year brings a purpose made reverse, an original scene commissioned for the release and retired with it. The 2024 issue, Desert Life, put a lone red kangaroo at a waterhole in artist Bronwyn Scott’s rendering of the arid centre. Nothing about those coins existed anywhere else.
The 2026 release inverts that. Rather than commissioning a new interpretation of the animal, the Mint has taken the version already circulating in Australian change and adjusted it. Collectors who buy the gold proof are buying an argument about the circulating coin rather than a departure from it, which is not how the series has worked across three decades of annual reverses.
2026 Kangaroo Series Specifications, Mintages and Prices
The silver proof and gold proof sit at the top of the release, struck to the mirror field and frosted device standard the Mint reserves for its collector issues. The frosted uncirculated dollar takes the opposite approach, with polished devices lifted against a frosted ground, and arrives in a slab style capsule fronted by a themed card reading Mob of Six over a sunset silhouette of the mob.
Mintages do the ranking. At 3,000 pieces the gold proof is the scarcest of the three by a wide margin, and it is the only one of the trio struck in 99.99% gold. The silver proof at 5,000 sits in the middle. The frosted uncirculated coin, at 10,000, is the entry point and the one most likely to define the type’s availability on the secondary market for years.
2026 Kangaroo Series at a glance
| $1 Silver Frosted Unc | $1 Silver Proof | $10 Gold Proof | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SKU | 11900 | 11901 | 11902 |
| Metal | 1 oz fine silver | 1 oz fine silver | 1/10 oz 99.99% gold |
| Finish | Frosted uncirculated | Proof | Proof |
| Diameter | 40 mm | 40 mm | 17.53 mm |
| Mintage | 10,000 | 5,000 | 3,000 |
| Price (AUD) | $155.00 | $190.00 | $925.00 |
| Limit | 5 per account | 5 per account | 5 per account |
Where to Buy the 2026 Kangaroo Series Coins
All three coins went on sale on Thursday 6 August through the Mint’s online shop, its contact centre, the Mint shop in Canberra and participating authorised distributors, with a household limit of five per product. At the time of writing all three remain available directly from the Mint, though the online shop is warning of dispatch times of up to six weeks on current orders.
That combination is worth reading carefully. A gold proof capped at 3,000 and still listed a month after release is not a sellout story, but neither is a Mint quoting six week dispatch windows a quiet one.
The interesting question is what happens to this type in five years, when the Mob of Roos has long since gone back to five and the 2026 dollar is the only one that ever counted differently. Devlin’s design has spent four decades being the coin nobody looks at. For one year, it is the coin everybody has to.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Mob of Six Roos design? It is Stuart Devlin’s Mob of Roos reverse with one extra kangaroo added above the group, giving six animals instead of five. Each kangaroo represents a decade since Australia moved to decimal currency in 1966. The Royal Australian Mint uses it on both the 2026 circulating $1 coin and the 2026 Kangaroo Series collector coins.
How many coins are in the 2026 Kangaroo Series? Three. A $1 one ounce silver frosted uncirculated coin at $155, a $1 one ounce silver proof at $190, and a $10 gold proof of a tenth of an ounce in 99.99% gold at $925. All three share the same reverse.
What are the mintages? 10,000 for the silver frosted uncirculated coin, 5,000 for the silver proof and 3,000 for the gold proof. The gold proof is the scarcest of the three.
Is the Mob of Six Roos $1 coin in my change rare? Not in the way the collector coins are. Every 2026 dated $1 coin released into circulation carries the design, and distribution began in the last week of January. What makes it collectable is the date range rather than the quantity, since it is the only year the six kangaroo reverse will be struck.
Will the design come back after 2026? No. The Mint has confirmed that $1 production reverts to Devlin’s original five kangaroo design from 2027.
Who designed the original Mob of Roos? Stuart Devlin, who had already designed the reverses of Australia’s 1c, 2c, 5c, 20c and 50c decimal coins. His five kangaroo dollar was introduced on 14 May 1984 to replace the one dollar note and to give vending machines a higher value coin.
What is on the obverse? Dan Thorne’s effigy of King Charles III, with the legend CHARLES III · AUSTRALIA · 2026.
Where can you buy them? The three collector coins were released on 6 August through the Mint’s online shop, its contact centre, the Mint shop in Canberra and participating authorised distributors. A limit of five per product per customer account applies.
