Mints around the World won't stop making bullion coins by weight, and NCLT bullion coins, so long as there is a big profit in it.
The
Perth Mint exists only for
a) the purpose of producing bullion coins, and
b) as a gold refiner and bullion producer.
And they are very good at it.
The last coin they produced for circulation was way back in 1964. They were bronze Pennies and Halfpennies. These coins are distinguished with a dot after PENNY or HALFPENNY
The last silver coin produced for circulation was the Shilling of 1946, and that was almost a 'one off' batch of 1.31 million of them. (I have an example, with a dot before SHILLING)
That was the
only silver coin ever struck by the
Perth Mint for circulation.
The last gold coin that they produced for legal 'circulation' was before the First World War.
They continued striking Half Sovereigns up to 1918, and Sovereigns up until 1931 for International payment in bullion gold, then Australia came off the Gold Standard in 1932.
Modern
Perth Mint products are collected as bullion coins, mainly by specialist bullion coin collectors.
I have one example only: a non proof Platinum Koala, of 1991.
I am not a specialist bullion collector, although I have probably a total of kilo or so of World junk circulation silver, and a few World NCLT silver crown sized coins.
Come to think of it, a huge excess of U.S. silver dollars were struck, that were never intended for circulation.
Posted 06/21/2016 06:16 am
