Silver Ounce 2014 Australian Map - Saltwater Crocodile, Coin from Australia - detailed information

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.

Some of these coins can be classified as "Smartminting" (or "smart minting") due to the technologies used in their production; these include irregular shapes, coloured surfaces, precious stone inserts etc. The coins are targeted at collectors who appreciated them as art rather than at bullion investors.

This coin is the sixth issue in the Perth Mint's Australian Map Shaped Coin Series featuring various native animals of Australia, and depicts a Saltwater Crocodile.

The saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats and brackish wetlands from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaic region to northern Australia and Micronesia. It was hunted for its skin throughout its range up to the 1970s, and is threatened by illegal killing and habitat loss. It is regarded as dangerous for people who share the same environment.

The saltwater crocodile is the largest living reptile and crocodilian known to science. Males grow to a length of up to 6 m, rarely exceeding 6.3 m or a weight of 1,000-1,300 kg. Females are much smaller and rarely surpass 3 m. It is also known as the estuarine crocodile, Indo-Pacific crocodile, marine crocodile, sea crocodile or informally as "saltie".