This penny is a trial piece minted at the Melbourne Mint as part of a proposal to replace the bulky copper pennies and halfpennies in circulation with a coinage more lightweight and more Australian in design. 

The Kookaburra patterns were designed between 1919 and 1921 and trials were made and distributed to offices of the Treasury, Parliamentarians and various other persons to test the reaction to the proposed change. 
 
The Mint Deputy Masters clearly believed that this new coinage had Commonwealth support; even the Sydney Mint in its annual report of 1919 mentioned the new equipment it would need to produce them. In 1920 the Royal Mint, London was asked to prepare working dies for the nickel coins and supplies of nickel were purchased in readiness for full scale production. However it appears the square coins were not suitable for the large number of vending machines in use at the time (especially for transport tickets) and so Australia retained the large bronze formats until the introduction of decimal coinage in 1966.
 

In total there were ten different penny designs proposed and two halfpenny designs. The coin acquired and available from The Bradford Mint is known as Type 12 and it was one of the final two ‘frontrunners’ chosen as the most likely to go into production.
 

Altogether fewer than 200 patterns, or trial pieces, were struck across the twelve different designs. This one, being one of the two most likely to go into production, had a minting of around 40-60 of that total. With such scarcity you are advised to contact one of our Senior Executive today to secure this piece of numismatic must-haves.