New bullion: Iconic Australian ‘Mob of Roos’ coin back in limited Singapore privy mark silver form

The national personification of Singapore, the Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. The fish body represents Singapore’s fishing village origin, with the lion head represents Singapore’s original name—Singapura—meaning “lion city”. It isn’t a particularly old symbol, having been designed in the early 1960’s. Whatever the history, it’s the perfect symbol to mark the city states big coin fair. One of our favourite Australian coins is also the perfect choice to hold the Merlion as a privy mark. Stuart Devlin’s 1984-penned ‘Mob of Roos’ design depicting five turning kangaroos in different poses, leading around anti-clockwise and getting larger as they go, is simple, but striking, and has been a perennial favourite in Australia, appearing in several forms in the intervening decades.

The obverse carries Ian Rank Broadley’s effigy of Queen Elizabeth II – likely the last time it will do so as the Royal Australian Mint is transitioning over to the international variant of Jody Clark’s version in 2020. Back in silver bullion form, the design has been reproduced as a one-ounce fine silver coin with a relatively tiny 5,000 mintage. Take away those sold at the Singapore Coin Fair, and the number available for sale worldwide is little more than half that. Available now, the coin comes encapsulated and is available at a few dealers worldwide, with APMEX and LPM HK being the biggest dealers with them.