The world renown Perth Mint produces some of the most fantastic collectible coins currently available.
The Perth Mint is Australia's prestigious mint, producing collectible coins and bullion. It is well known for its colorized (colourized on its site) coins, proof and proof - like coins, and handsome display cases.
The low mintage, highly collectible Tuvalu coins that are produced at the Perth Mint are worth viewing. Perth also has been minting some Cook Islands coins, especially those that have the outer ring that can rotate relative to the inner disk.
The Perth Mint is an old mint with a history of high quality coinage. It currently produces some of the most spectacular coins of the world.
The Perth Mint produces indigenous art coins, selectively colorized coins, and coins with embedded with gemstones. Some coins are made is rectangular shapes, and the coins produced for Cook Islands has two parts that rotate relative to each other.
The Perth Mint annually produces many low mintage varieties, and releases coins throughout the year. Its website must be visited on a regular basis, since some coins sell out immediately.
For variety of coins with low mintage and high quality, Perth is a real leader.
Even the bullion coins are produced in a multitude of sizes and metals, and many have colorized, gilded, or proof versions.
The Perth Mint often incorporates gemstones. The silver one-kilogram coins of the Lunar Series I used diamonds embedded into the coins. These were placed in the eyes of the subjects. Lunar Series II continues the practice of gemstone insertion, but uses a different color gemstone for the various subjects. The 2008 ox had citrine, the 2009 mouse had two sapphires, and the 2010 tiger has a golden topaz. The 2011 rabbit has sapphire as its stone. Look at the image below! These work well with the colorized coins.
The Treasures of Australia gold and silver series have a unique presentation window for gemstones. There is a hole in the bottom half of the coin, and the stones are encapsulated in a transparent window, viewable from either side. These coins are minted in gold and silver. The silver coins, affordable to many numismatists, sell out quickly, but the gold coins stay available longer. The stones used include sapphires, opals, diamonds, and gold, and ends in 2011 with pearls. These are great collectibles. They have performed well in price. The stones have value in a different market than the precious.
The Perth Mint makes coins that are affordable. If you look for base metal coins, silver coins, or smaller gold coins, the coin will often be much less expensive than larger silver and gold coins.
Choose a coin with a low mintage, and it may actually escalate in value.
For small silver bullion coins, except for the Koala on a special card, consider going through a distributor. Some have low markups.
To reduce your cost per coin, buy several at one time. Shipping per coin is much less when buying in quantity. However, check the cost with and without that last coin you added. It may ne the one to cause shipping to jump.
One special series of "Dreaming" coins, as well as the rectangular "Dreaming coins" incorporate indigenous art into the coin designs.
The Discover Australia "Dreaming" series started in 2009, and is now complete. It consists of five coins per year, which can be bought, separately or in one case. These coins are available in silver, gold, and platinum. What is nice is the Perth Mint took the time and expense to produce three versions of each coin. The images used for each metal, while depicting the same subject, are different. This is a very low mintage series, and housed in a beautiful box. These are accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.
The rectangular coins are not part of the Discover Australia series, but instead are mint to order coins. The mintage is declared after the last one is produced.
These coins were designed by Darryl Bellotti, who is described at the Perth Mint's site as an indigenous artist of both Yamatji and Nyoongar descent.
Many series of Perth Mint coins are short. Four or five coins in a series are normal. This allows collectors to get the entire series without too much difficulty.
Some mints continue series for long periods. The Perth Mint designs new, exciting coins, and groups them into short series, low mintage issues. This makes the Perth Mint coin collector friendly.
The Perth Mint makes both numismatic and bullion coins. Its bullion is often collected by numismatists, since it is of great quality.
The silver coins considered bullion are all 0.999 fine silver, and include three distinct series. The kookaburra series depicts the kookaburra, a bird well known to Australians, and has been around since 1990. Each of the issues is unique, with the kookaburra presented in a different setting than all other issues. The two Lunar Series depicts the Chinese zodiac symbols, and started in 1999 with the rabbit. In 2008, the 2008 mouse, the 2009 ox, and the 2010 tiger were all released, ending series I. In 2008, Series II also started. Perhaps the reason was that the gold coins had been issued first, and the mint decided to start both Series II metals together. The one Troy ounce silver coin changed dimensions. Series II silver coins are thinner than Series I, but have a greater surface area. The koala is the most recent addition.
Both the Lunar Series I and II coins and the koala are also produced in 24-kt gold. The nugget gold coins are another bullion series of the Perth Mint.
The Perth Mint produces silver bullion, albeit not for every coin, in one-half, one, two, five, and ten Troy ounce sizes, and the one kilogram huge coins. Gold can be found as small as one-twentieth of a Troy ounce, and includes typical larger sizes.
It is recommended that bullion be purchased from a dealer. Many online dealers offer bullion, and occasionally it can be obtained at a very good price.
Below are E-bay offerings in bullion.
Tuvalu does not have its own mint. Instead, the Perth Mint produces many of the collectible coins for Tuvalu, and usually markets them.
Tuvalu numismatic coins sold through the Perth Mint's online store are of high quality, and are usually low mintage and accompanied by a numbered Certificate of Authenticity. Their beauty and scarcity have, in the past, resulted in many coins with escalating prices shortly after the mint sells out. One can hope this continues in the future.
Cook Islands also occasionally use the Perth Mint as one of the mints producing its vast numismatic product line. Another mint that produces Cook Islands coins is the New Zealand Mint.
Cook Island coins tend to incorporate unique features. The Perth Mint has produced several coins for the Cook Islands honoring the space shuttle. These have a silver outer ring that can rotate relative to the interior portion of the coin. Since these are very limited in availability, and one would expect that some of the mintage will be worn by children handling them, one can hope that they will soon become valuable.
The Cook Island coins are depicted below. Each is accompanied by a link to Black Spaniel Gallery's website which contains many Perth Mint products.
Some coins come in sets, and only in sets. Others come separately, but can be ordered in sets. One difficulty ordering a set can cause is the cost limits potential buyers. And it is difficult to break up a set.
The Celebrate Australia Dreaming Coins, for example, can be bought individually packaged, or in year sets of five coins each. The problem is that these coins come in very attractive cases. Individual coins each have a case, but a set of coins comes in one case. Collectors often demand the mint packaging, and in this case the display cases are especially attractive and likely to be required by a buyer. Breaking up a set of five coins prohibits including the display case the collector may well desire.
Before making the decision to always buy coins individually packaged understand some coins, like the truck set, are issued only in sets.
Modern World Coins (Official Red Books)
