The Chinese lunar calendar is known to be thousands of years old but they still use it today to mark special events and festivities. In fact, their system is known worldwide along with the twelve animals used to differentiate its cycles.

Said to signify the courage and competitiveness of a natural leader, the tiger is one of those twelve animals and is found on some of the newest releases from The Perth Mint. The 2010 Year of the Tiger Silver Coins feature a variety of options for the collector or gift giver.

Perhaps the most popular in this series will be the colored tiger silver coin. Struck from one ounce of 99.9% pure silver, the 1 dollar face value coin shows a lying tiger that has been colorized to its natural hues. To the left of the tiger is the Chinese character for the animal while underneath is the inscription ‘Year of the Tiger.’ The colored coin is available from the Perth Mint for $68.18 AUS and ships with a presentation case. It is limited to a mintage of 170,000 worldwide. Read the rest of this entry »

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of a technological and historically significant event, The Perth Mint has released the First Man On The Moon 2009 Silver Proof ‘Orbital’ Coin. This coin is the fourth of five in a set of releases that are part of the Perth’s Orbit and Beyond series.

The innovative series capitalizes on the Perth’s abilities to create unique pieces. The Orbit and Beyond coins feature an outer ring design that really orbits around the colored image of Earth in the center. Read the rest of this entry »

The Perth Mint has unveiled its 2010 Silver Bullion Coin Program. Recognized throughout the world for their superior quality, superb artistry and Government guarantee of weight and purity, these magnificent pure silver coins are welcomed annually by both investors and collectors.

The Mint’s 2010 offerings include: Australian Kookaburra Silver Coin Series, Australian Koala Silver Coin Series and the Australian Lunar Silver Coin Series. Each coin is composed of 99.9% pure silver with its purity and weight guaranteed by the Australian Government. Additionally, these coins are considered legal tender under the Australian Currency Act of 1965.

The following described silver coins will be available worldwide through The Perth Mint Web site, or through its authorized distributors and coin dealers: Read the rest of this entry »

The Perth Mint today launched the 2010 Australian Kangaroo Gold Coin Series, continuing its tradition of producing gold bullion coins with an image of Australia’s famous marsupial. This basic kangaroo concept started in 1990, with design variations changing yearly on most of the coins.

Considered legal tender under the Australian Currency Act of 1965, these coins are all 99.99% pure gold, guaranteed by the Australian government for weight and purity.

The Kangaroo series is available in five different sizes: a $15 face value 1/10 oz coin, a $25 1/4 oz coin, a $50 1/2 oz, a $100 1 oz and a $3000 face value 1 kilogram coin. The four smallest sizes feature a new design of two kangaroos ‘boxing’ in the outback with the inscription ‘Australian Kangaroo’ across the top and ‘2010,’ the size and ‘9999 Gold’ across the bottom. Read the rest of this entry »

Marking the 300th Anniversary of a conflict that would shape the political structure of Europe for centuries, the Perth Mint has released the Battle of Poltava 1 oz Silver Bullion Coin.

This battle was just one of many in the Great Northern War, and while not particularly academic in its strategies, the outcome would strip the power of one nation and initiated the growth of power of another.

Before 1709, Sweden was a dominant military force intent on conquest over Europe. Russia was just a pawn, easily overcome by the Swedish in earlier years and left to heal its wounds.

But Tsar Peter I of Russia was not content with just recovering, he wanted to retaliate. To this end, he spent the next several years turning his armies into a modern force, schooled in new tactics and armed with the latest weapons. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the largest gold nuggets ever discovered has gone on display at The Perth Mint.

Newmont Mining Corporation’s Normandy Nugget, which was found in a dry stream bed near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia in 1995, can now be seen up close in the Mint’s fascinating Gold Exhibition.

Weighing in at 25.5 kilograms, it is the second largest nugget in the world today having escaped being melted down, and is the 26th largest gold nugget ever discovered.

Information published by the University of Southern California, where the 40 million year-old nugget was examined in 1999, showed it to be 80 to 90% high purity gold.

That gives the nugget an intrinsic value of approximately AU$800,000 at today’s gold price, but its uniqueness and historical significance means it would doubtless fetch much more. Read the rest of this entry »

The year was 1066 and a pivotal battle between two European powers that would help shape the history of the continent, and for that matter the world, was about to take place near a coastal village in England. To commemorate this conflict, the Perth Mint is now offering The Battle of Hastings 1066 1oz Silver Proof Coin as the third coin in its successful Famous Battle coin series.

Harold II, King of England, had just returned from crushing a Norwegian Viking invasion when he heard news of a Norman force near the village of Hastings. Eager to show his people of his ability to protect them under all circumstances, he rushed with what men he could find to meet the threat. Advisors had pleaded with King Harold to delay in order to give his battle weary soldiers a rest and to muster additional troops. Harold refused and marched at once with a force estimated at 7,500. Read the rest of this entry »

Blast off through the galaxy with The Perth Mint as it launches the latest exciting series in its Young Collectors coin program – Space!

Unveiled today at Horizon – The Planetarium, the new coin program is designed to educate children aged from seven to 15 years about the wonders of the solar system through the interactive, engaging and fun hobby of coin collecting.

With the coin industry facing an increasingly mature collector-base, Perth Mint Sales and Marketing Director Ron Currie said that exciting new initiatives are needed to boost participation in one of the world’s oldest and most noble hobbies – coin collecting. Read the rest of this entry »

The Perth Mint of Australia announced on Tuesday the world-wide launch of the second proof issue from its renowned Australian Koala Gold Coin Series, the 2009 Koala Gold Proof Coin.

This year the design features an eye-catching image of a young koala facing out while sitting on a branch eating gum leaves.

Koalas are one the few iconic symbols strongly associated with Australia. They are indigenous only to Australia where they spend most of their life high up in Eucalyptus trees eating leaves. Most animals find the Eucalyptus leaves toxic, but the koala has developed the ability to digest them safely. Read the rest of this entry »

Available now from the Perth Mint are two coins that are ready to slug it out against each other, like the figures they represent. The Transformers Silver Proof Collector Coins, one featuring the heroic Autobots leader Optimus Prime and the other depicting the evil Deceptacon leader Megatron, were minted with the approval of Hasbro and Dreamworks.

Sure to capture the interest of coin collectors, movie fans and more importantly the eye’s of the young who may step toward a new hobby in numismatics, each coin is struck in an ounce of silver and in collector proof condition.

The Transformers were based on action figures that could convert from everyday mechanical objects into robots. Hasbro initiated the line in 1984, and a cartoon series featuring the robots came soon after. The line has grown over the years to encompass new characters and several series of cartoons. Read the rest of this entry »