Royal Australian Mint launches a beautiful new ‘Coat of Arms’ bullion coin series in gold and silver

The Royal Australian Mint is really starting to flex its muscles in the bullion coin market, after a few years of growing their presence with a succession of impressive designs. Their Lunar Range, Great White Shark, Dolphin Series, and the triangular Australian Shipwrecks series are all fine examples of modern bullion coins, but we believe they may have topped them all with this latest release.

Called simply ‘Coat-of-Arms’, it’s the first in a new series and takes inspiration from the actual Australian ‘Commonwealth Coat of Arms’, but does so with a bit of artistic licence. Designer Aaron Baggio has done what we can only describe as a fantastic job with this first coin. The reverse face features the kangaroo, about as Australian an animal as you can get, and sits it in a stylised scene packed with flora. It’s almost a ‘naturised’ version of the more heraldic original, which you can see embedded in the background of our featured image above.

The joey in the kangaroo’s pouch, the star intermingled with the flora and the brilliant way the necessaary inscriptions are incorporated into the overall design, are all top notch. There’s a lot packed into what is still essentially a bullion coin. It wouldn’t look out of place on a proof coin.

The reverse face takes the other animal on the original emblem, the Emu, and gives it similar treatment. The addition of eggs at the feet of the bird adds meaning, yet also serves to provide a grounding for everything above. The flora is equally prolific, yet completely different – a nice detour from the source material. The star returns, as well as the banner, which cleverly holds the inscribed composition. The effigy of Queen Elizabeth II is neatly incorporated, rather than taking centrestage, a huge improvement.

Two formats on offer. The one-ounce 0.999 silver coin will be a popular choice, of course, and has a mintage of 50,000 pieces. The other keeps the one ounce weight, but uses 0.9999 gold instead, with a mintage that tops out at 5,000 pieces, a fairly large number these days. This one has, to be completely honest, really hit the spot here. Ultra-Australian in design, packed with fine artistic detail, and all the while maintaining a tight relationship with the source material, what’s not to like?

Available to order now, as long as the premium is competitive, I’d buy these in a heartbeat. We’re hopeful that future issues in the series will be equally well realised. The original Commonwealth Coat-of-Arms incorporates a shield with the six state emblems on it, which aren’t alluded to here, so there’s plenty of scope for future offerings to mix things up a bit.