Avid collectors are being advised to keep rare coins featuring Queen Elizabeth II close, as special commemorative pieces are tipped to rise in value over the coming years.
The Queen was first commemorated on Australian currency in 1953, when she was crowned, and has appeared on more money than any other person in history.
Since the beginning of her 70-year reign, there have been six different depictions of the Queen on the "heads side" of Australian coins.
David Wright, who runs a Militaria and Collectibles shop in Ballarat, Victoria, said the world of coin collecting would be very different now.
Images of King Charles III are expected to be printed on Australian currency in 2023, while coins with Queen Elizabeth II will stay in circulation and remain legal tender.
Mr Wright, a long-time collector of coins and military memorabilia, spoke of his shock at the Queen's death.
"I was very upset and saddened. Originally, I'm from England [and moved] in the 1960s," Mr Wright said.
"I also served in the military under the Queen. She was a lovely lady who worked for her people."
Mr Wright is an avid collector of antiques and keeps a tribute to the world's longest-serving monarch in his shop.
"Being ex-military, I have a portrait of her above me in my shop office … and she will remain there forever."
Mr Wright said while "hundreds of thousands of millions" of coins had been printed with Queen Elizabeth II's image, collectors should keep their special pieces close to home.
"The rarer coins — the pure silver and gold coins, and the commemoratives … on envelopes — they are the ones that will increase in [value] over the next five to 10 years — not immediately," he said.
"Now is a good time to go out and buy them if you want them and then put them away for the future, like we did in the 40s and 50s with pre-decimal coins."
Special or commemorative coins with the Queen's effigy might include uncirculated designs, which may be slightly more polished than circulating coins and can be in presentation cards.
In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint created the Big Maple Leaf: a pure-gold 100-kilogram coin depicting Queen Elizabeth II.
Ten years later, a group of thieves used a wheelbarrow and ladder to steal the piece from a German museum, where it was on loan from a private collector.
It was one of the largest gold coins in the world.
Though it's unlikely you'd have one of these in your collection, Mr Wright urged collectors to keep an eye out at second-hand stores and estate sales for rare coins — as your standard $1 or $2 probably wouldn't change in value.
"Her 25th anniversary, from 1977, the commemorative coins and medals that were brought out for that period … then for her 50th and 60th … they'd be the ones to grab."
