Is Bullion The Same Internationally?

The Austrian Mint in Vienna has set itself up to produce high quality PM bullion coins, in the same manner as the Perth Mint.
They have developed a strong business niche for themselves in the European bullion coin market, with the manufacture and marketing of their Philharmonika bullion coins.
I guess the Chinese have forged their products as well, just as they have with Perth Mint products.

It would be wise to buy from a recognized bullion dealer; at least they have the XRF testing equipment to test bullion coins easily and almost instantly.

No they don't matter. If I showed you a .999 fine blank it would be worth the same. The difference with bullion is the source of the assayage. You flock towards a certain kind because you trust its assay and you trust that it is .999 like it should say on the coin or bar. They try to confuse you with legal tender denominations but don't pay any attention to that.

And Phillies, because of their plain edge (no reeding) makes every one of their coins look like generic knockoffs and that's my only gripe with them, but they are sometimes cheaper than ASEs if you can find them on this continent. At least they don't have milkspots.

Unfortunately, I have the example with "milkspots", same as SMLs.
The coins that I saw the milkspots on them:
SMLs
ASE (not the milkspots, but "white fogged area"
Austria Philharmonics
Panda - very tiny one spot
Somali Elephant - few tiny milkspots

So from this perspective, I more trust Britannia, Koalas, Kooks and Pandas

Matthewvincent: I agree with everything you said. I couldn't have put it better myself. I'm in Canada and I prefer ASEs, but I have more SMLs because they are more abundant. Strictly speaking, though, an overwhelming majority of Canadians have never seen an SML, so I feel that it doesn't matter so much which country's bullion you hold. That said, I do prefer Libertads above all others because there's no fixed monetary value on it. It's the most "sane" bullion, and it takes paper money out of the equation altogether unless Hugo Salina Price's idea catches on.

Yeah, but I think collectors, like to collect coins with a face value, because they like legal tender. It is what separates collector coins from medals,rounds and boutique coins. Libertads have ridiculously low mintages compared to all other world bullion. I just bought a 1999 Libertad mintage 95,000 ; compare that with other 1999 issues,
Eagles 7.4 mil;
Maple Leafs 1.23 mil;
Kookaburras 300,000;
Panda 600,000

I paid $65 dollars in MS condition, if it was an Eagle with a 95,000 mintage , it would cost 3-4 times as much. I think that one of the main reasons that Libertads are so under collected and under valued is because of their " lack of denomination, which is the determination of legal tender.

And silver was pulled in Canada just one year after the Centennial! I bet people were still too distracted by the commemorative designs to notice. A pox on you, Trudeau! (And Pearson is also probably guilty...!)

The plot thickens...