Australian Gold Bullion Coins

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Ever since Australia began minting its own gold coins during the middle part of the 1800s as a response to the large deposits of gold found in the area as well as the growing demand for high-quality coinage from Great Britain, they have slowly earned the reputation of being one of the world’s finest and most avant-garde mints. What initially began as a small supervised mint under edicts from the Royal Mint of Great Britain to help supply gold coinage to the mainland while at the same time developing local coinage to be used as currency in the colony, a Australian mints, more notably the Perth Mint of Australia has risen to become the most trusted minting company in the world today, churning out millions of base metal coins for general circulation, and hundreds of thousands or rare, unique, collectible gold, silver, and platinum bullion coins of inimitable fineness and purity that has become the hallmark of today’s bullion-making industry and market.^[1]

Prior to the rise of the Perth Mint of Australia, three founding mints were created by the Royal Mint for the express purpose of having to do away with the need to transport large amounts of precious metal from the Australian colonies all the way to Great Britain, and thus effectively hasten the speed of production, while avoiding the chance of loss due to theft or accidents. The three founding mints were created, first in Sydney in 1855, followed by Melbourne in 1872, and lastly, Perth in 1899. These three mints were responsible for processing, refining, and creating gold coins for the British Empire, as well as any local base-metal coinage as needed by the then slowly burgeoning population of Australia.^[2] After the defection of both the Sydney and the Melbourne mints, only the Perth Mint remained in operation. It was not until 1957 that the Perth Mint began to rise in prominence when it achieved the successful purification of what would now be considered the purest quality of gold ever achievable. With this discovery, the production of gold coins for the express use of international bullion investment began to rise to the forefront. This was shortly followed by the creation of the Gold Corporation of Australia in 1987, which redirected its pursuits to creating state-of-the-art high-quality gold, silver, and platinum bullion for a global market. Since then, the Mint has simply gotten better.

Today, with Australia’s gold bullion coins numbering in the thousands to ten-thousands, the development of new and groundbreaking gold bullion coins for the global market has continued to skyrocket. Ever since the introduction of their six-nine fine (999.999%)[3] gold, the gold bullion market began to turn their eyes towards anything that came out of the Perth Mint, immortalizing Australia as a prime source of undeniably pure gold of unsurpassable fineness. The response, a production of gold coins flaunting 99.99% fineness and high artisan quality that all but spelled the demise of the then standard 22-carat bullion coins that soon became no more than a ‘collector’s item’, to be replaced in the bullion investment world by Australia’s gold coinage.

Australia’s dedication to the production of high-quality gold coins did not stop at purity. They were one of the first to have integrated colorations into gold coins (in their highly artistic 2000 Sydney Olympic commemorative coins[4]), a feature which has now become commonplace in Australian bullion as well as other bullion coins from different countries. The Australian mint was also one of the first to incorporate the now famed annual revamp of design, a feature that has become common in many gold coins available in today’s bullion market. Owing to their popularity in the numismatic market and to the undeniable delicacy of their pure-gold coins, Australia’s Perth Mint was also the first to develop standardized clear acrylic casings that housed coins to protect them from damage – a feature then uncommon (and still is) for marketed gold bullion. Perhaps the most pioneering of Australia’s achievements in the world of gold coinage was their creation of the largest and most expensive gold coin ever produced in the history of mintage – the near $60 million 1 tonne Red Kangaroo coin that rivaled even the 100 kg gold coin of the Canadian Royal Mint.^[5]

The inventiveness and ingenuity that marks Australian gold coins as items for both collection and investment have truly made them a cut above the rest in the numismatic world and the bullion market, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Australian Gold Bullion Coins - References:

[1] http://www.perthmint.com.au
[2] http://www.gold-net.com.au/archivemagazines/sep02/69328603.html
[3] http://www.perthmint.com.au/investment_bullion_bars_coins_faq.aspx
[4] http://www.coins-auctioned.com/auctions/rare-collectors-2000-olympic-gold-coin-set-115
[5] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/perth-mint-unveils-53m-coin/story-e6frg6nf-1226178568316

Note - this site provides general information about gold, silver, coins and bullion. None of the contents of this web site should be seen as financial or investment advice.