The Australian one ounce silver piece (abbreviated as 1 oz and designated with Ag for "silver") is a bullion and commemorative coin format. Uniquely, in Australia there are two mints authorised to strike legal tender: the Royal Australian Mint (which also makes the country's circulating coinage) and the Perth Mint which only makes collector and bullion coins, as well as other bullion products.
The Australian Silver Kangaroo coin range was introduced in 1993 by the Royal Australian Mint; subsequently, the Perth Mint also started issuing Kangaroo bullion coins. The coins have legal tender status in Australia and are one of few legal tender bullion silver coins to change their design every year. This and their limited annual mintage may, unlike for many other bullion coins, raise their numismatic value over the value of silver used.
This coin is part of the long-running Australian Kangaroo bullion coin series by the Perth Mint, and is a "numismatic" issue with a one-year design. The coin has high relief and is thicker and smaller in diameter than regular silver ounce coins.
The mint says about it: The high relief Australian Kangaroo coin represents the very best in minting excellence and design. The Australian Kangaroo 2013 1oz High Relief Coin is struck from 99.9% pure silver in proof quality. The coin's reverse depicts an adult kangaroo standing in an outback desert scene. The coin’s high relief reverse and obverse are minted on concave surfaces to ensure the optimum flow of metal is achieved by the strike of the die.
Issued as Australian legal tender, the coin’s obverse depicts the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the monetary denomination. |