The legal problem with our new $2 coins
Colourful new Australian $2 coins to celebrate the work of beloved children’s author Mem Fox have unexpectedly been embroiled in a long-running legal battle with Canada.
The Royal Canadian Mint has accused the commemorative Australian series of coins, which celebrates the 1983 classic Mem Fox children’s book Possum Magic, of using its unique process of painting colour onto metal.
A lawsuit was filed in the Australian Federal Court in December last year over half a million Remembrance Day $2 coins which featured red poppies. The lawsuit has now been extended to include the Possum Magic $2 coins.
The Possum Magic series was launched in August 2017 and featured three $2 coin designs with the colourful artworks designed with “magic dust” rings.
When the coins were released, Fox said she and the book’s illustrator Julie Vivas had to approve each coin, which carry a different illustration of Hush, the main character in the book.
“We’ve had thousands of emails about the coins and my head is nearly blown off with excitement about this,” she told News Corp Australia at the time. “They all look like heaven.”
The lawsuit demands the Australian mint either destroy the hundreds of thousands of coins now in circulation, surrender its profits or pay damages.
However, the Australian government, which owns the Mint, has filed a countersuit arguing its method of colouring coins is different from the Canadian version.
The Royal Australian Mint told SBS: “The Royal Australian Mint is vigorously defending its position and has subsequently filed a counterclaim in the Federal Court.”
The BBC reports that Canada first contacted Australia about the issue in 2015 and tried to resolve it informally, court documents show.
The two parties are believed to have even met in person World Money Fair in Berlin in 2016 but could not resolve the issue.