They sat in cars for 15 hours. They sat in chairs overnight. They stood in their thousands for hours - just to get the new set of coins on sale at the Royal Australian Mint from 8.30 this morning.
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If they needed caffeine, too bad! The enterprising coffee seller was sold out by 7am.
The throng outside the government factory which coins the money we increasingly don't use was a true phenomenon. A set of of 14 newly-minted versions of $2 coins with the Queen's head on drew people from across Australia.
"We left home at three o'clock this morning because we all love the Queen," said Jan, from Sydney.
She is an ardent fan of the old Queen, so she wanted the Mint's set of all the $2 coins over 35 years which have featured Queen Elizabeth.
From now on, it's King Charles (about whom Jan from Sydney was loathe to talk - and don't mention Princess Diana).
But the Queen. Ah, the Queen! "We've loved her for years. We've got every gold coin she's ever had her head on," the fan said near the back of the queue.
Ahead of her were about 2000 people, so would she get to the shop before the coins had sold out?
"All these people around me tell me we will definitely get our coins or I'll burn down the Mint," she said.
"I got to shake hands with her when she was out here, and that's why we're here today to get this special collection."
The Mint has minted 35,000 of the sets so the long-suffering people in the queue ought to get what they wanted - except that registered dealers and post offices also have a non-queue option. People in the queue said previous offerings had sold out.
But that was when the Mint's online sales were operating. So great was the demand for the $2 coin with the remembrance poppy on it that the sales site crashed. "We are in the process of upgrading and rebuilding it," a spokesperson for the Mint said.
In the meantime, the queue was the only way for ordinary members of the public to be reasonably certain of getting the set.
"We drove from Brisbane - 15 hours - to get here 11am yesterday," said Matthew Davie, No.3 in the queue.
They sussed the place out on Wednesday morning and then returned at 3pm for a spot of serious queueing - overnight and seventeen-and-a-half hours of it.
"We just thought, 'We need to be committed'. If we're on it, we need to be here to get it, so that's why we're lining up.
Some came because they were fans of the Queen. Some came because they were coin collectors (as they invariably called themselves, shunning the fancier title of numismatists).
Others were more mercenary. Each person in the line was allowed one set of the new coins when the shop at the Mint opened at 8.30am. The cost of the set was $235 but they were selling on eBay for around $400 more - so an immediate profit was there to be had.
This third group were shier about talking to the media - but the phones monitoring the eBay price were obvious and abundant.
Then, after the long waits, at 8.28, a Mint official said to the throng: "Ladies and gentlemen, we're ready to go. Happy day."
The people at the front of the queue responded with: "We're ready. We're ready. We're trotting on the spot."
At 8.30 prompt, the doors opened. A bonanza was waiting.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
