Never let it be said that the Perth Mint doesn’t know how to do a bullion coin featuring one of the wild and wonderful creatures that populate their homeland. Building a solid reputation on the backs of their now seminal Koala, Kookaburra and Kangaroo ranges, they’ve branched out with renewed vigour into the limited mintage bullion market with a range of distributor exclusive series.

This one here is handled by Metal Market EU in Europe and is called ‘Australian Emu’. Launched in 2018, it takes the Perth Mint style and applies it to the bird that won a war with the Australian Army. The Emu is another of those unusual creatures that seem, ironically, to be the norm in Australia, so a perfect subject for a Perth Mint bullion series.

Strangely enough, the lanky bird seems to fit a coin face very well and the selection of scenes, all show decent variation and a high standard of accurate depiction. All are consistent in appearance, quite a feat considering three different artists have worked on the series to date. The obverse is the basic Perth Mint design with the effigy of QEII, the Ian Rank Broadley effort on the 2018, Jody Clark on subsequent ones. In 2024, they moved to Dan Thorne’s effigy of King Charles III.

A simple range for a change, with a one ounce 0.9999 gold topping it, although the popular issue will be the one ounce 0.9999 silver. Mintages to date have been 5,000 for the former and 30,000 for the latter. There’s also a proof or coloured special one ounce coin for the collector. The same design, of course, but nicely boxed with a Certificate of Authenticity. All told, a great little series, and one that collectors or stackers of Perth Mint precious metal would be wise to have a look at.