Silver Ounce 2016 Latinum Slip, Coin from Australia - detailed information

Australia has two mints, the Royal Australian Mint (which also makes the country's circulating coinage) and the Perth Mint, which are both very active in the bullion coinage space; coins issued by them are legal tender.

Additionally, there are private issuers of bullion which is not legal tender and is targeted at investors and not at coin collectors - such as this one.

The Latinum Slip - Gold pressed Latinum silver ounce was released by the Perth Mint as part of a long series of products featuring characters and themes from the Star Trek series of films.

In the science fiction series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, latinum was a rare silver coloured liquid of extremely high value prized by many civilisations in the Alpha Quadrant, particularly the Ferengi Alliance. In order to be used as trade-able currency, liquid latinum was suspended within gold or gold dust to form the end product, gold-pressed latinum. The gold served only as a carrier for the latinum and was worthless to the Ferengi. There were several denominations of gold-pressed latinum, the smallest being the slip, followed by the strip, the bar, and the brick. One bar of gold-pressed latinum is equal to twenty strips or 2,000 slips of latinum. Each denomination features a maker’s mark for authenticity.

This silver bar is usually listed under "Tuvalu" by various web sites, but - unlike the rest of the series - it is not legal tender of that country, so we have listed it under "Australia" where the manufacturer (the Perth Mint) is located.