We checked out the Perth Mint on Sunday. (I love shiny coins). The Perth Mint was established in 1899, the last of three Australian colonial branches of the United Kingdom’s Royal Mint – after the now-defunct Sydney Mint and Melbourne Mint. (Yes, there was a gold rush to Western Australia as well; several, actually, with the discovery of alluvial gold at Kalgoorlie in 1893 the most significant).
The tour of the Mint features a display of the largest gold coin in the world : 80 cm (31 in) in diameter and 12 cm (4.7 in) thick, and made of 1,012 kg (2,231 lb) of 99.99% pure gold. The coin’s face value is A$ 1 million, but the bullion in it is actually worth some A$53.5 million. (No pictures were allowed inside the Mint, but here is a link to a picture of it).
