In just its second venture outside of Perth, the Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin has been transported 600 kilometres east to the renowned gold mining city of Kalgoorlie where it is now on display for the inaugural day of the Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum, which is celebrating its 25th year.
The
Perth Mint CEO and Diggers & Dealers ChairmanDiggers & Dealers Chairman Nick Giorgetta (left) with
Perth Mint CEO Richard Hayes.
The colossal coin was created as the pinnacle of the nation's gold bullion coin program, and is used to promote Australian gold internationally. Welcoming its special appearance at the conference, Diggers & Dealers Chairman Nick Giorgetta said that the coin "demonstrates to the industry, and to the world, how remarkable achievements such as this can heighten the promotion of gold on the world stage."
Here are 10 fascinating facts to whet your appetite for the One Tonne Gold Coin, which will be returning to it preeminent station in the Mint's public Gold Exhibition shortly.
Measuring 80cm wide by 13cm deep, it holds the Guinness World Record for the largest coin in the world.
It's mostly comprised of gold recovered from the Kalgoorlie area, once dubbed the "richest square mile on earth".
The raw gold was refined by The
Perth Mint, which operates one of the largest refineries in the world, to a purity of 999.9 parts per thousand.
Way too big to be handled on a coin press, the gold was poured into a giant graphite mould featuring laser-etched versions of the coin's two sides.
The 'red kangaroo' design was created by Geelong-born Stuart Devlin, who famously designed Australia's decimal currency.
Thousands of man-hours and enormous patience were required to hand-polish and finish the coin's surfaces.
Australian Treasury authorised it as official Australian legal tender, so it's real money!
But forget about putting it in your pocket. Typically, it's moved with a gantry crane and a specially-made cradle.
Even though it has a face-value of '1,000,000 dollars', the current gold price means its intrinsic worth is in excess of AU$60 million.
The only other time the One Tonne Gold Coin left Perth was during its 2014 European road trip when it visited Vienna, Munich, Stuttgart and Berlin, where many investors favour Australian bullion coins.
Posted 07/28/2016 3:29 pm
