Beyond the Perth Mint’s imposing gates is a secret world of precious metals and a rich 120-year history. The Perth Mint, founded in 1899, is Australia’s oldest continuing mint and one of the world’s oldest. The Perth Mint leads precious metal refining, trading, and minting worldwide.
Perth Mint History
The Mint was founded in 1899 to process gold from Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields during the gold boom. The oldest operational mint in Australia, the Mint is held by the Western Australian Government.
Pioneer in precious metals
The Perth Mint invented gold and silver refining methods. In the early 1900s, the Mint improved gold refining using chlorination and then electrolytic gold refining, which yields 99.99% pure gold. The Mint led the globe in gold bar minting and started making investor and collector gold coins.
Visit the Perth Mint’s Modern Manufacturing Facility
Tour the Perth Mint’s modern production plant to see how gold bars and coins are made.
Gold Melting House: A chlorine-based electrolytic technique refines mined gold doré bars into 99.99% pure gold. Watch gold be melted in a furnace and poured into moulds to produce bars.
The Silver Press Room: Silver grains are crushed into Australian legal tender silver coin blanks here. Watch the enormous hydraulic coin presses stamp precise patterns onto silver blanks at 550 coins per minute.
Coining Factory: Gold and silver blanks are struck into legal tender and collector coins here. Up to 50 metric tons of coining presses employ 250 tons of pressure to emboss elaborate patterns on precious metal blanks, creating gold and silver coins.
Most Popular Perth Mint Silver and Gold Bullion Series
The Perth Mint makes world-class bullion coins and bars. Australian Kangaroo and Kookaburra are its most popular silver and gold series.
Australian Kangaroo: The Australian Kangaroo is the Mint’s flagship bullion series, launched in 1993. Kangaroo coins come in various sizes and include 99.99% gold or 99.9% silver. A desert setting and three kangaroos run across a field on the reverse. On the front, Ian Rank-Broadley draws Queen Elizabeth II. The first Australian Kangaroo coins were one troy-ounce gold. They added 2 oz, 10 oz, and 1 kg in 1991.
The Australian Kookaburra: The 1990 Australian Kookaburra series features the laughing bird. Like the Kangaroo, Kookaburra coins are 24-karat gold or 99.9% pure silver. The reverse design features a different kookaburra each year. An Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II appears on the obverse.
Australian Koala: The first Perth Mint Silver Koalas were issued in 2007. Recent mint gold bullion items include the Australian gold Koala coin series. Our coins are .9999 pure gold or silver. The Koala and eucalyptus tree dominate the design. Designs vary throughout the Koala series.
Australian Lunar Series: Each year’s new coin shows a different animal in each lunar cycle, based on the old Chinese 12-year lunar schedule. From the “Year of the Mouse” until the “Year of the Pig” in 2007, the Australian Lunar Gold Coins series ran. All Lunar Gold Coins are .999 gold. Moon silver coins are .999 pure. There are different legal currency amounts and weights of Perth Mint Silver Lunar Series coins.
Perth Mint Direct Sales of Precious Metals
The Perth Mint sells metals with several benefits. Mint offers reasonable gold and silver pricing as a recognized Australian distributor. You can invest in bars and coins of various sizes.
The Perth Mint guarantees weight, purity, and metal content on all products. Gold and silver LBM-accredited. Authenticity and purity certificates accompany each bar and coin. Assurances that investors get what they paid for. The Mint guarantees precious metal purity and value, so buy with confidence.
Final Thoughts
Perth Mint honours gold. While seeing this famous institution, you can’t help but respect its impact on Western Australia’s economy and identity. Even when the gold frenzy is over, the Mint is Australian. Perth visitors should see this historic site. Learn about gold and early Australia. Perth Mint represents prospectors’ dreams and nation-building.
