The Platinum Koala is an Australian

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

bullion coin Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from the ...

minted by the

Perth Mint The Perth Mint is Australia's official bullion mint and wholly owned by the Government of Western Australia. Established on 20 June 1899, two years before Australia's Federation in 1901, the Perth Mint was the last of three Australian colonia ...

between 1988 and 2000. The Platinum Koala is notionally

legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in pa ...

, that is a legal means of payment (in Australia). On 18 June 1987, the Australian Government approved the minting of platinum and silver coins. This decision was made based on the success of gold coins issued a year earlier. The minting of the coin began in September 1988 in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. For marketing purposes, 2 ounce, 10 ounce and 1 kilogram coins of silver, gold and platinum were introduced in 1991; the 1 kg coins were the world's heaviest bullion coins at the time. The production of the Platinum Koala was stopped in 2000 due to a lack of a demand. In 2000, only 2.048 out of a total possible mintage of 100.000 were struck. The

obverse Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''o ...

depicts the Queen of Australia,

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

, and the reverse contains an image of a

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womb ...

. The initials JB of the reverse face designer James Brown are present on most coins. Other designers of the coin include Raphael Maklouf (1990, 1991, 1996, 1998), Miranda Cornell (1998) and Darryl Bellotti (2010). The annual series contain coins weighing from 1/20 ounce to 1 kilogram. The Platinum Koala never reached the popularity of the American Platinum Eagle, mostly because it has not been advertised in the US. Like most investment platinum coins, Platinum Koalas are sealed in a protective plastic case. The coins are sold at prices that reflect the current price of platinum, and not at the face value printed on the coin. Since November 1986,

has used more than 18 tonnes of platinum for minting. About 85% of them were sold abroad making the

Gold Corporation Gold Corporation is an Australian company owned by the Government of Western Australia, established by the Gold Corporation Act 1987, with a mandate to operate the Perth Mint, market Australian gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol ...

(owner of the Mint) one of Australia's top 30 export earners.

References

{{Reflist, 2 the face value of 1991 tenth oz platinum Koala is Fifteen Dollars. Bullion coins of Australia Platinum bullion coins

See also

References