Australian Silver Lunar Coin – A Beautiful Silver Menagerie
by Christina Goldman
The Perth Mint which is found in Western Australia started
minting the
Silver Lunar Coin in 1999 to start a chain of mintage
based totally on the Chinese Lunar Year. Therefore, the
entire Lunar Silver Coin collection would have as its basis,
the twelve animals. According to Chinese legend, this
honored an invite from Lord Buddha to visit him before he
left this Earth.
The good Buddha had called all the animals but only these 12
obliged, so he rewarded these fortunate dozen by naming each
of them in the cycle of the Chinese Lunar Year by the order
by which they came: the rat was first and started the cycle,
followed by the ox, the tiger, the rabbit or hare, the
dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the
rooster, the dog and the pig (or boar).
However, since the Australian Silver Lunar Coin started
minting in 1999, its starting animal in the 12-animal cycle
is the rabbit which happened to be the ruling animal in the
Chinese Lunar Calendar that year. The rest of the animals
followed in their respective order with the ox design
featured in this years Perth Mint issue and the tiger icon
scheduled to wind up the Lunar Silver issuance in 2010.
The Australian Silver Lunar Coin originally came in five
sizes: half-ounce, 1 ounce, and those that weighed at 2, 10
and 32.5 (1 kilo) ounces. Two variations, the 5-ounce and
the half-kilo were added in 2004. All are legal tender and
have a purity of 99.9% pure silver. Their face values,
however, differ.
The 1 kilo size has an Australian-dollar face value of A$30,
the half-kilo coin A$15, the 10-ounce A$10, the 5-ounce A$8,
the 2-ounce A$2, and the 1-ounce A$1.
As you can see, collectors and numismatists whose thematic
specialization falls under completing a collection by years
will definitely find a gem in the Australian Silver Lunar
Coin.
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