For all its innovations over the years, and there’ve been many, the first thing that springs to mind when you mention the Perth Mint are their iconic bullion coins. The mint was set up in 1899 by the Royal Mint, to produce circulating coinage for Western Australia, and to handle the large quantities of gold discovered during the region’s gold rush. The mint struck 106 million gold sovereigns until 1931, when Britain abandoned the gold standard.

In 1970, the mint was bought from the UK by the WA government, and in 1987, the mint was given the right to strike legal tender coinage for sale worldwide. It currently holds the record for the largest gold coin ever made, weighing a staggering 1,012 kg. It embarked on a programme of bullion coins, offering several ranges, each with an annually changing design. The most famous of them are the Lunar Series, the Kangaroo, the Koala, and the Kookaburra, the latter three of which inspired this new release.

Designed by Jennifer McKenna, the 125th anniversary coin features the kangaroo (which debuted in 1986) as the main focal point, with a koala (2007) to the left, and a kookaburra (1990) to the right. The latter pair are perched on branches of golden wattle, an acacia, the flower of which is Australia’s national floral emblem. The design gets the anniversary across to collectors perfectly, and there’s a ‘P125’ mintmark to top it off.

The obverse is an effigy of King Charles III by Dan Thorne, and the proof coins come nicely boxed, and with a Certificate of Authenticity. At present, there are one-ounce silver, and one-ounce gold variants, although knowing the Perth Mint, there may be others available at a later date. A fine celebration of one of the world’s most popular mints, and one collectors everywhere will want to commemorate. All variants, including the bullion we look at further down, will be available to buy from 9th April. If you can make it down to the mint store in Perth for 8:30am, they will be selling low certificate numbers (2-20 gold, 5-200 silver).