Collectible Australian Coins of the Perth Mint

The coinage of Australia predates Australia being an independent country, and while Australia was part of the British Empire the Royal Mint was responsible for coinage used in Australia.  To satisfy the need for coins, and to eliminate having precious metals shipped to the Royal Mint, made into coins, then the coins shipped to Australia, the Royal Mint established branch mints in Australia.  While both of these mints in recent years moved to new facilities, their locations have been dictated by Australia having taken charge of the former branch mints of the Royal Mint.  In fact other mints have also contributed to the coinage of Australia, including other branch mints located in Australia. 

In this piece I will concentrate on the decimal pieces, and include both commemorative and bullion coins from the Perth Mint.  The series below offer a good view into the quality and variety of coins produced by the Perth Mint.  Others also exist, but these are perhaps among the more significant series of Perth Mint coinage. 

To see the fuller range of current coins available at the Perth Mint please visit the Perth Mint website, where a multitude of current coins are featured.  For older coins please visit Ebay, or look at what I am showing at the Black Spaniel Gallery Coins website.

The Perth Mint produces bullion coins in silver, gold, and platinum.  The silver coins include several long running series, the Lunar Series which is now in its second version, the Koala, and the Kookaburra.  Recently, a Kangaroo Silver Bullion Coin has been added.  Yes, silver kangaroo coins have been around for a long time but until now the kangaroo has been associated with the Royal Australian Mint.  Perth has produced some higher quality proof kangaroo coins over the years, but the basic, annual silver kangaroo coin has traditionally been associated with the Royal Australian Mint.  Other silver coins have been introduced by the Perth Mint, including the Funnel-Web spider and a couple of other coins.  Whether these survive is yet to be determined.

Gold bullion coins in both series of the Lunar coins exist, and so do gold kangaroos.  Earlier gold nuggets, coins featuring the image of a gold nugget, are also Perth Mint products.

The Perth Mint platinum bullion series is the Platypus. 

The bullion coins come in a multitude of sizes, including fractions of a Troy ounce up to ten kilograms.  Not every size is minted every year for each of the variety of issues, but the popular one ounce coin is available for all silver bullion coin types.  

Gold Sovereign

One carry over from the time when British coin denominations were popular is the Gold Sovereign.  It is unlikely this popular gold coin will be discontinued in the near future.  This coin signifies too much of Australian history to be discontinued.  Actually, multiple gold sovereigns exist, including half sovereigns.

The Perth Mint has issued some tributes to the Holey Dollar.  The history of the holey dollar is that when Governor Lachlin Macquarie arrived in Australia he had Spanish dollars punched so as to make a hole in them.  This gave the people two coins from one, the holey dollar and the dump, or inner part.  This was done to alleviate a coin shortage.

The Australian Antarctic Territory Coin Series

The Australian Antarctic Territory coin series is an incredible, long running coin series containing some of the beautiful enamel coloring that the Perth Mint is known for.  And, there has even been glow in the dark enhancement applied to the Aurora coin.  Then, it also has the advantage that the subject matter for these coins lends itself to depicting the great beauty of nature.

The Discover Australia Coin Series

The Discover Australia coin series is really three different coin series.  These coin series consist of five coins with different images that were in the past issued annually to showcase Australia.  However, unlike many mints, the Perth Mint actually minted fifteen different coins in a year.  If a kangaroo is being depicted, there would be three different images of the kangaroo, one in silver, one in gold, and one in platinum.  So, owning one each of a particular subject in different metals would be to own quite distinct coins.

Black Spaniel Gallery has some silver Discover Australia coins available, as well as other older Australian commemorative coins..

Treasures of the World

The Treasures of Australia coins series had a unique design where coins had windows in which a few small precious stones, gold flakes, or pearls were placed.  These were issued in a five coin series, and available in both silver and gold. 

The Treasures of Australia series was so successful that the Perth Mint has followed up with the Treasures of the World coins.  The window has been changes to round in Treasures of the World coins.  But, the inclusion of precious stones has continued.

Map Shaped Coins

The Perth Mint has introduced coins shaped like the map of Australia.  These unique coins make quite a visual impact, and should be considered for a collection.  They are, in addition to their unique shape, quite colorful as well.

The Perth Mint experimented with rectangular gold and silver coins that had their mintages declared after the coins finished their year long run.  These were coins that had the collector uncertain of the final mintage numbers until after the coins were declared finished at the mint.  It made an interesting question for a collector, will the coin have a high or a low mintage when the run ends?

The Argyle Pink Diamond Precious Metal Bars

If it is unique precious metal ingots that gets your attention consider the Argyle Pink Diamond bars.  These are minted in gold and in platinum.  Each bar has seven pink diamonds inset into it, producing an incredible appearance.  Of course these come with a price that precludes most people from owning one, so the mintage is low.  They are numbered right on the bar, and the total mintage is also stamped on each bar.  They contain one Troy ounce of precious metal per ingot.  They have apparently become an annual addition to the minted products of the Perth Mint.

The only negative here is that the ingots have no denomination associated with them, so they cannot be called coins.  But, the good news is the ingots are now joined by a gold coin.  It is also described on the page brought up using the link above.

New Releases by the Perth Mint

See what is new at the Perth Mint by visiting the Perth Mint's New releases page.  The link above goes to the New Releases page.

This article contains links to affiliate programs from some or all of Amazon, Zazzle, Viglink, and Ebay through Viglink, and Adsense advertising.  These must use cookies to allow for proper crediting.