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The Royal Australian Mint (the Mint) focused on prioritising the Australian public’s needs above all else in developing a unique product that would create a positive impact across Australian society.

The Donation Dollar followed a ‘Design Thinking’ methodology that used ethnographic research, prototyping and product testing to understand how people use coins and think about the act of charitable giving.

The project team and designers concentrated on inspiring charitable giving, rather than coin collecting. The result was a coin which is official legal tender, which can be spent like any other $1 coin, but one which inspires and prompts its recipient to “Give to Help others’, generating millions of dollars in additional annual donations recurring over the next thirty years.

This is the first coin in the world where a detailed study of the human experience of a coin’s usage was used to drive its design. A coin specifically designed to be donated is a world first initiative.

This initiative has been modelled on giving and social good. This has resulted in the Donation Dollar being recognised internationally and will, we believe, provide a shift in thinking for many Mint’s worldwide.