Australian Silver Bullion Coins

 Australian Silver Bullion Coins are another staple for silver investors and collectors.  The Perth Mint has struck over two dozen distinctly different 99.9% pure fine silver coins or series during this decade.  Currently they are all being minted at Australia’s only mint; Perth’s Mint.

One of the Australian Silver Bullion Coins popular series is the Chinese Lunar II, concludes with the 2012 Year of the Dragon.  This set has twelve designs, one for each year depicting the Chinese zodiac calendar displaying the: Tiger, Ox, Rat, Pig, Dog, Rooster, Monkey, Goat, Horse, Snake, Rabbit, and Dragon.  Each one of these have a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse and are available is various weights: one kilogram, ten ounces, five ounces, two ounces, one ounces, and a half ounce.  All have reeded edges.

The Kookaburra’s design changes yearly since it was first struck in 1990 and come in weights of: one kilogram, 10 ounces, and one once.  The Koala and Kangaroo also appear on Australian Silver Bullion Coins.

However this year, 2012, is Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee!  There is the five crown coin with a current portrait of the Queen on the obverse wearing the crown and mantel.  “ELIZABETH.II.D.G” runs along the left rim of the coin and “REG.F.D.FIVE POUNDS” is along the right rim.  The reverse has the young princess Elizabeth wearing a laurel wreath with bow.  The date “2012” is on the left and on the right, stacked, is “DIR IGE DEVS GRESSVS MEOS” with laurel branches and ribbons along the lower rim.

There is also a very limited set of two Proof one Australian dollar silver coins in a presentation box.  These are limited to one thousand sets.  And a single ‘painted’ portrait image on a one ounce silver Proof coin in presentation box which is limited to 7,500.


Australia’s first mint was established in Sydney by United Kingdom and the Royal Mint’s first branch outside of Great Britain.  The Sydney Mint was established in the rear of Sydney’s General Hospital in 1855 with the front being the Mint’s offices.  The Sydney Mint was in operation until 1926 because the Mints in Melbourne and Perth had better technology and more profitable

Construction was begun on the Melbourne Mint in 1869 and completed in 1872, opening on June 12 that year.  The Melbourne Mint minted only gold sovereigns until 1916 and from 1927 the Melbourne Mint was the sole producer of Australia’s coined currency until it was closed in 1967.

Australia’s Perth Mint’s foundation stone was laid by Sir John Forrest, a explorer of Australia and the first Premier of Western Australia at the time, in 1896 and opened on June 20, 1899.  This branch of the London Royal Mint was to refine gold recently discovered in Kolgoorlie, Coolgardie, and Murchison regions of the colony and then to strike sovereign and half sovereign gold coins to be used in the colony.

The Perth Mint remained under Britain’s control until July 1, 1970 when the ownership was transferred to the State Government of Western Australia.  In 1987 the Gold Corporation was created by a State Act of Parliament.  Various measures and commercial contracts allowed the Perth Mint to start marketing a wide variety of services worldwide and firmly establishing Australian Silver Bullion Coins as one of the top precious metal bullion in the world

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