WEBSITE INFORMATION

Production of Australian silver bullion coins suspended in April has been restored.

As of today, 2oz Lunar Snake, 10oz Koala and 10oz Kookaburra silver bullion coins have been reinstated for sale on the website.

Availability of all other Australian silver bullion coins affected by the temporary suspension will be restored in coming days as stocks are re-built.

BULLION BARS AND COINS

Here’s an interesting insight into the rarest gold bullion coins from Series I and Series II of the Australian Lunar program.

Launched in 1996, Series I ran until 2007 when production of all coin sizes ceased. Series II began in 2008 and final mintages have been declared for coins portraying the first five (of 12) designs.

Rarest coins in each size

Over the course of the program to date, Australian Lunar gold bullion coins have been offered in eight different sizes. Mouse designs account for the majority of the rarest issues

Rarest 2oz coins

Somewhat surprisingly, 2oz coins have noticeably low mintages when compared to other small bullion coins in the program. This list highlights the five rarest Australian Lunar gold bullion coins in this convenient size.

Rarest of the rare

Despite their cost-effectiveness, very few kilo coins have been issued. This list reveals the five rarest Australian Lunar gold bullion coins – all of them kilos!

The full list of Australian Lunar gold bullion coin mintages:

  • Series I
  • Series II

WEBSITE INFORMATION

There has been a tremendous surge of demand for Perth Mint products since the dramatic dip in the price of bullion.

To ensure we can satisfy demand for our most popular products as effectively as possible, The Perth Mint factory is now focussed on manufacturing the following silver bullion coins:

  • 2013 Australian Kookaburra 1oz silver bullion coin
  • 2013 Australian Koala 1 kilo silver bullion coin
  • 2013 Australian Kookaburra 1 kilo silver bullion coin

Other Silver Bullion Coins Available While Stocks Last

The streamlined product range means that production of other Australian Lunar, Kookaburra and Koala silver bullion coin sizes is temporarily suspended.

However, we still have stocks of temporarily suspended products available on our website for immediate purchase.

Stocks are limited and new stock will not be arriving until the temporary suspension is lifted.

WEBSITE INFORMATION

Gold futures slumped to a 21 month low last week and most of the media is talking about the ‘bull’ that’s turned into a ‘bear’.

How are Perth Mint clients reacting? Looking at the level of activity on www.perthmintbullion.com today, they’re stepping up purchases of physical gold and silver.

In fact, our bullion website just recorded its highest daily turnover of the year so far and one of its best days of the past 12 months.

This tells us that that not everybody believes the gloom and instead sees this as the perfect buying opportunity.

Gold Coin Sales Rocket

Sales of Australian gold bullion coins have been especially robust. During Q1 2013 buyers acquired a thumping 48% more ounces of Kangaroos and Lunar coins than in the same period last year.

BULLION BARS AND COINS

This year The Perth Mint will be releasing three silver bullion coins featuring privy marks.

Traditionally, a privy mark is a small mark of differentiation in the design of a coin added for the purpose of identifying the mint.

The Perth Mint revived the ancient practice with a memorable series of silver bullion Kookaburra releases during the 1990s.

This year we are issuing Australian Kookaburra and Australian Lunar silver bullion coins featuring the addition of privy marks.

Each release is individually approved in law as a new Australian legal tender coin with its own mintage arrangement. (see Mintage Policy – 3. Coin Variations).

The 2013 releases, which will appear in February, comprise:

1oz Australian Lunar Snake with Bavarian Lion Privy Mark

 - Maximum mintage: 100,000
 - Manufactured for distribution by one of our wholesale clients based in Germany.

 
1oz Australian Kookaburra with Snake Privy Mark

- Maximum mintage: 50,000
- Manufactured for distribution by wholesale clients based in the United States and Germany.

 

1oz Australian Kookaburra with F15 Privy Mark

- Maximum mintage: 15,000
- Manufactured exclusively for the Europe-based distributor of the Fabulous 15 Silver Coin program.

BULLION BARS AND COINS

I announced details of our new Mintage Policy in November. There has been an update to the information I provided then, which I’d like to inform you about now.

Previously I said that the Mint reserved the right to manufacture each 1oz release from the Australian Kookaburra silver bullion coin series up to its individual maximum mintage.

What others have called a “re-striking”, however, no longer applies.

Having listened to a great deal of customer feedback, the policy has been amended so that we will no longer be making past 1oz Kookaburras that undersold their maximum mintage.

As a result, we have closed production and declared final mintages for all 1oz Kookaburras and other unlimited denominations released between 1990 and 2012. We have published the figures in the following document:

 • The Australian Kookaburra Silver Bullion Coin Series 1990-2013

Please refer to these recently updated documents for further declared mintages:

 • The Australian Koala Silver Bullion Coin Series 2007 – 2013

 • The Australian Lunar Silver Bullion Series Two 2008 – 2013

 • The Australian Lunar Gold Bullion Series Two 2008 – 2013

These documents can be found on our corporate website under Bullion Mintages.