An error on a football PNC

Gold Coast Suns

(Five players from the Gold Coast Suns AFLW team. Photo AFLQ.com.au)

Australian Rules Football is a distinctly Australian game. The highest tier is the Australian Football League (AFL), which has both men’s and women’s (AFLW) competitions, each with 18 teams currently. AFL uses an oval-shaped ball somewhat similar to a rugby ball. You can either kick or handpass (hold the ball with one hand and punch it with the other), but not throw. The 18 players on each team do have a general position or role, but there is no limitation on forward or backward movement or location of players. There are four upright posts at each end, placed 6.4 metres (21ft) apart. Each team’s goals are at one end. If you kick the ball between the two central posts, that is a “goal” which is worth six points. Between the other posts is a “behind” which is worth one point. If you get the ball between any of the posts at the other end, it is a “rushed behind” worth one point to the opposition. Each game has four 25-minute quarters, and the team with the highest score at the end of the game wins. The score is typically written as: 8 5 53. That is 8 goals (worth six points each for 48 points) plus 5 behinds (worth one point each) for a total of 53 points. There is a lot more nuance to it, or Wikipedia has a good plain English overview. But this is a numismatic site, not a sports site, so I’ll get back to the coin and PNC momentarily! 🙂

The Gold Coast Suns are a team from Queensland. The Gold Coast is a beachside area popular with tourists, near Brisbane, the capital of the state.

Obverse

The obverse of the PNC features the main colours of the team, red with yellow stripes at the sides, the GC SUNS logo in the centre and AFL logo lower-right. There were 1,000 issued, of which this is #0017. Out of interest, #17 for Gold Coast men’s team is Jed Walter, a key forward. #17 for the women’s AFLW team is Jamie Stanton, a medium forward.

In 2023, the Royal Australian Mint brought out a set of collector coins, one for each team and coins with the AFL and AFLW logos on them. Australia Post made a set of 1,000 PNCs of every team and sold them as sets of 18. These didn’t sell and they eventually broke them up and sold the PNCs individually. They have done the same thing again, although releasing the individual PNCs alongside the full sets.

Reverse

The reverse contains some stats on the team:

• Home Ground – Heritage Bank Stadium
• Club Formed – 2009
• Joined AFL – 2011
• VFL / AFL Premierships – none

The Gold Coast Suns are the second-newest team (Greater Western Sydney were formed a year later. After round 15, 2024, they are 11th on the ladder out of the 18 teams (There are 25 rounds, with each team playing 23 games and having two “byes” or weeks where they don’t play).

Coin obverse

The obverse of the coin is the “Memorial obverse” for Queen Elizabeth II, with her years of reign as well as the current year listed. With the Charles III portrait now appearing on more coins, I wonder if these AFL coins will be among the last to feature the memorial obverse?

Coin Reverse

The reverse of the coin features the team logo with a football going between goal posts in a stadium, with the team name at the bottom. Each of the 18 team coins has the same design (with the team logo and name for that team).

Stamp and error

The stamp is in the shape of a player jersey, not dissimilar to the jersey’s worn by the players at the top of this post. Australia, and the value $1.50 are underneath. A letter currently costs $1.50 to post in Australia. The cancellation mark has a design not unlike the coin, with the football larger rather than having the team logo. It is dated 15th April 2024, at Brisbane VIC 4000.

Brisbane is the capital of Queensland. It is not in Victoria, although Brisbane’s postcode is 4000. On the 2023 PNC, they also used Brisbane (this time correctly attributed to QLD). Personally, I think it is odd to use Brisbane given there is a rival AFL team there. Gold Coast as a locality does not have a post office, though it does have a postcode – 9726. I would have thought Carrara, 4211 would be the logical choice – it is next to Gold Coast, they have a post office, and it is the locality of their home ground, Heritage Bank Stadium.