The Type III five cent piece has been issued from 1999 and remains the annually issued type today. The type features the Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth on the obverse and Stuart Devlin's iconic echidna design on the reverse. Devlin's initials (SD) can be found directly underneath the denomination (see image below). In addition to the large number of standard business and proof strikes a number of different strike types have been issued.
From 2001, the Royal Australian Mint has intermittently issued gold proof strikes, and from 2003 the Mint has issued silver proof strikes. In addition, from 2002 to 2009 the mint issued wedding coin sets containing deep mirror specimen strikes before being replaced by proof strikes in 2010. In 2007 a minting error resulted in the production of an unknown number of double headed business strikes.
