New Australian bullion coin pays homage to the 1980 discovery of the Hand of Faith nugget

Last year, the Perth Mint launched ‘Welcome Stranger’, the first in a new bullion coin series featuring some of the giant nuggets found in Australia. The series is back with ‘Hand of Faith’, Weighing in at almost 875 ozt, it pales in comparison to the 1869 discovery of Welcome Stranger, but remains the 2nd largest found in Australia in the 20th century and the largest still in existence in the world today.

We weren’t fans of the first coin, or the Royal Australian Mint’s proof coin of the same subject, and this one doesn’t change our mind. It’s a very appropriate subject for a bullion coin, but just not a very aesthetic one. An amorphous lump of metal simply isn’t exciting to look at. We almost imagine the Perth Mints designers drawing straws to see who gets to do this one…

A one-ounce silver and a one-ounce gold make up the selection on offer, with the former having a 30k mintage and the latter 7.5k. Available from today, you should be able to pick it up from the usual places, or you can simply go to the Golden Nugget Casino Hotel in Vegas to see the original nugget, for which they paid a reported $1m.

REVERSE: portrays a representation of Stuart Devlin’s depiction of the Hand of Faith nugget against stylised rays of light. Also included is the inscription ‘AUSTRALIAN NUGGET HAND OF FAITH 1980’, the weight and fineness, the 2020 year-date and The Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark.

OBVERSE: The Jody Clark effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the monetary denomination are depicted on each coin’s obverse.