It’s the third of June and time, although a day earlier than usual, for our latest weekly news nuggets roundup of rumours, releases and site updates, etc. We don’t go into great depth here but hopefully you’ll find some bits of interest. This week the news that the Royal Canadian Mint are on the verge of launching a one-million mintage Superman silver bullion coin is of most interest. We’ve been doing lots of updating and tweaking of our popular coin guides, both the numismatic Coin Series Profiles, and some bullion guides which will continue until they’re all up to date.
SUPERMAN 1oz BULLION COIN
The Royal Canadian Mint is to launch a 1oz silver bullion coin featuring Superman’s iconic shield symbol. Mintage will be limited to one million units, much like the mints other non-Maple bullion coins such as the recent Birds of Prey, although ‘limited’ is a matter of context given even a million is more than all but a handful of other major bullion coins.
We should have images shortly with a spec the same as the Birds of Prey range. We don’t know yet if this is a one-off or part of a limited series.
STANISLAW AUGUST ADDITIONS
We seem to be on a run of Stanislaw August news after the box last week, but we’ve updated our Coin Series Profile to this excellent series of 2oz gold and silver coins with the latest design.
The tenth in this epic 24-coin series, they’re modern reproductions of medals produced by Stanislaw August depicting rulers of Poland through the centuries. Beautifully struck coins, while the subject is quite niche they have huge appeal to collectors of traditional looking coins.
BULLION SALES GRAPHS FOR US AND PERTH MINTS UPDATED
A mixed bag this month, with silver holding its own, but gold falling quite heavily. At the United States Mint, gold fell to 76,500 oz, down from 105,000 oz in April to post the second lowest monthly numbers this year, although still at the highest May figures for the four years we’ve been tracking. No such joy in Perth where gold sales last month were the lowest since we began tracking at the beginning of 2013, down from 47k to just 21k ounces. Until May, gold had been doing very well this year, but constant drops in the spot price over the last week or two is obviously cooling interest.
Silver in Perth remains strong, although at the lowest monthly numbers since the debut of the Kangaroo bullion coin last September, and the first time sales haven’t broken a million ounces since then. They’re maintaining their record of holding the highest monthly numbers this year compared to any previous, so still reason to be cheerful. USM silver almost hit 4.5m ounces again and the sales trajectory is again upwards. It looks like silver is weathering the recent market drops far better than gold.
PERTH MINT JUNE RELEASES
We’ve already seen the launch of a medallion this month commemorating the 80th anniversary of comic strip superhero The Phantom, but the usual monthly launch of new coins comes in on the 7th June and includes just four new pieces.
The 5oz gold version of the Australian Stock Horse is coming out for the third year (already added to our Coin Series Profile), and the 1kg proof Kookaburra coin also debuts.
Of far more interest is the Dirk Hartog piece, which is a very nice ship design, and the second in the Perth Mint’s Norse Gods trilogy of 2oz antique silver coins, this time featuring Thor. It’s another super design which we’ll add to our new Coin Series Profile as soon as the embargo lifts. There’s only the Loki coin to come now and wrap up what looks like being another fine series.
Another quiet month in what hasn’t been a particularly ambitious or prolific year for the Perth Mint so far, but they’re certainly capable of pulling out great coins when the need arises.
LOTS OF OTHER SITE UPDATES
We’re taking some time to update and tidy up some more of our coin guides. On the Coin Series Profile side of things we’ve already mentioned the updates to the Treasures of Stanislaw August guide with the first of two debuts in this series coming in 2016, but other changes are;
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