Gold Coin

Australian Gold Coin: The Coin That Weighs A Kilo

Have your ever heard of a coin that weighs a Kilo. The Australian Gold Nugget is a gold coin issued by Perth Mint. It comes in weight range of a twentieth of an ounce to one kilogram. But this is not all. This Australian gold coin is made of 24 carat gold with 0.9999% purity. These coins are considered to be really famous among gold coin collectors all over the world. The design of most of the coins in this family changes almost every year.

The obverse side has the image of Elizabeth II, the Queen of Australia. This was designed in 1999 by Ian Rank-Broadley. The design of the reverse side generally changes but most common depiction is that of the Australian Kangaroo. The latest kangaroo image was made by Stuart Devlin on 2006. This is one of those rare cases where the coin design changes regularly. The other is the Gold Panda issued by People's Republic of China.

The Australian gold coin is one of the few gold coins in the world which are still considered a legal tender. You can use the coin to purchase things in Australia. The Australian gold coin was first minted in 1986 with an Australian nugget on the reverse. The design of the coin changed on an annual basis. All the coins minted in 1989 and afterwards have a Kangaroo engraved on the reverse.

The Australian gold coin issued since 1987 by Gold Corporation, a govt. owned organization in West Australia has two features which make the coin unique. First feature is the two tone, frosted design and the second feature is the hard plastic encapsulation of each coin. These features make counterfeiting the nugget a very very complicated job.

It was in 1991 that newer coins were introduced. These new coins weighed 2 oz, 10 oz and 1 Kilogram. These coins are considered to be among the largest gold coins that have ever been minted in the recorded history of numismatics and perhaps mankind. The reason behind the introduction of these coins was to keep the premiums down by usage of the economics of scale.

The effectiveness of the measure may be debatable but within an year, the face value of these heavy Australian gold coins was brought down so that they remained proportional to the value of the coin that weighed 1 oz. Moreover the reverse side of the heavier Australian gold coin does not change every year. The red kangaroo is depicted on the coins in every issue.

Australian gold coin is mainly famous because the design changes regularly which makes the coin of any particular design very difficult and expensive to procure. Gold coin collectors are known to pay, as high as twice the market value of the coin to procure one.