New 2012 Coins From Perth Mint (Updated x 2)

While Numismatics should never really come into play with heavy duty silver and gold investing, it's hard to ignore some of the beautiful designs produced by the Perth Mint. With a limited production run, I'm sure these dragons will be snapped up so quickly by the chinese. These coins are part of Perth Mint's lunar year series and become available 1st September.

The appeal and legend of the dragon as a powerful mythical creature hoarding gold is enough for me to really want as many of these as I can get my grubby mitts on.

2012 Australian Gold and Silver Bullion Coin Program Unveiled

... four hours later I just realised this post could be construed as an advertisement for Perth Mint - well it is, but (sadly) not the kind where anyone makes any money (see disclaimer at bottom of site - it is very accurate). So, no, it just reflects my sad obsession with minted products. Like many other collectors, my coins are for keeps (to give to the kids and grandkids one day) and any bars are for shorter term trade. These are the Australian equivalent of your Eagles, but specifically these coins are part of the coin set themed on the lunar calendar. The silver is still silver and the gold is still gold, but they are pretty and shiny.

The standard coin from the Perth Mint is of course the 'Nugget', which features a kangaroo in various designs, with a new design each year. The half-ounce is a particularly beautiful coin in terms of weight and size and these days I prefer it over the full ounce coins (despite the extra premium).

The current smash down in gold (down from ~1900 to ~1700) is particularly interesting, and to be honest if they really need to wind it back that far then in the next couple of days the price action is going to be really something - i.e. specifically I am expecting (for various reasons) a complete rebound which keeps us back on the gold price trendline (either that, or this is the start of FOFOA's paper price going to zero, which will be incredibly unsettling). Don't trade on my view of course, that's just what I think will happen (i.e. I think we're in for an amazing punch up through 2000 shortly). I will probably be wrong as usual :)

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Update: Sunday 27th August - For anyone who might be still reading, this post from SilverGoldSilver came up - I just wanted to tell you that it IS a false rumour, and I'll explain why.

post: http://silvergoldsilver.blogspot.com/2011/08/exclusive-china-or-one-chinese-buyer.html

Perhaps Bron could comment for sure, but even some simple research into this matter shows where this would have come from - you will see it is not so much Chinese Buyers but Chinese Whispers. Here are the raw facts:

1. The production run for the dragon coin in the 1oz mintage are limited. Not the other coin sizes. The limits are gold 1 oz Lunar Gold Dragons: 30,000 and 1oz Lunar Silver Dragons: 300,000, and this is keeping with their standard production runs. This is stated in the blog post, but on first read it's easy to miss because I find myself looking at the coins and not really reading the words :)
   
   
2. The mint knows that the coins will be in high demand, so they have said no more than five x 1 oz gold dragons per customer, and 20 silver 1 oz lunar dragons per customer. Not sure how they are going to enforce that with their various resellers, but I'm going to talk to my local bullion dealer about it.
   
   
3. On the same blog at Perth Mint Bullion, on the 1st of August, they did talk about the offer for the entire mintage of 1oz gold lunar dragons. They also categorically state they rejected the offer. Here is the link, but I've also highlighted the important points.

So you can see where the rumours may have come from, but just bear in mind that Perth Mint has a lot of distributors for its products, and they know that demand (for the 1oz) will be very high for these coins and because it's all about business then (I assume) they will not dare stiff their suppliers. That's pretty much all there is to know.

To his credit, SGS qualifies his rumour circulation with a capital 'IF'. It's still sensationalism though, and it's lazy if he didn't do any basic research out there - to post it as an 'exclusive'. Here is his post:

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Update x 3 - August 29th 2011

For completeness, SilverGoldSilver keeps running with the Chinese Whispers here:
http://silvergoldsilver.blogspot.com/2011/08/cot-report-perth-mint-my-poker-game.html

and is debunked directly by Perth Mint Bullion Blog:

http://www.perthmintbullion.com/blog/blog/11-08-29/No_Truth_In_%e2%80%9cChinese%e2%80%9d_Rumour.aspx

If you view the comments in SilverGoldSilver, he keeps running with the idea, wanting it to be true, saying he is waiting for his person in Australia to confirm. I just want to say that if this is an indicator of his levels of basic research then you should take his 'info' with a very large grain of salt folks.

I just wonder if he will be man enough to pony up to his mistake and make a note that the rumour is false.