Perth Mint

The Perth Mint is the oldest and in operation Mint of Australia in the city of Perth. In 1896, the foundation stone was laid by Sir John Forrest, was the start of operations in 1899 as a department of the Royal Mint in London.

The Perth Mint has its own goldsmiths and refining and today various products made ​​of precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium ago. These included and include Sovereign, the Kookaburra silver coin, platinum coin and bullion Koala. The Perth Mint remained until July 1, 1970 under UK law, after which it was legally part of the Government of Western Australia. It is currently owned by the Gold Corporation, which is 100 % owned by the state.

By the year 2000 4500 tons of gold was processed in the Mint in total, representing about 3.25 % of the world's total processed amount of gold. By the year 1983 also coin was minted in the mint.

Largest gold coin in the world

In October 2011, the Perth Mint has established the largest and heaviest so far gold coin, beating the previous record of the Royal Canadian Mint. The coin has a diameter of almost 80 centimeters and a thickness of about 12 cm, weighs around 1012 kg ( 1,012 tons ) and is made of 24 carat gold ( 99.99%). The coin depicts on one side a Red Kangaroo and on the other a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II The coin is legal tender in Australia with a face value of 1 million Australian dollars. The gold value as at stamping time point, however, 53.5 million Australian dollars.