The Perth Mint

Can’t think of a more fitting ingot to kick off the “P” box than Perth old pours.

The Perth Mint’s story starts in 1899, when it opened as a branch of Britain’s Royal Mint — the last of three Australian branches after Sydney and Melbourne. It was built to handle the flood of gold coming out of the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie rushes, refining it and striking gold sovereigns for the British Empire, a job it kept until 1931. The Mint stayed under British control until 1970, when ownership passed to the government of Western Australia, which still owns it today. Remarkably, it still operates from its original Hay Street premises in East Perth, and its refinery has grown into one of the largest LBMA-accredited gold refineries in the world.

But the pieces collectors chase come from a much narrower window. From the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, the Perth Mint was still a boutique-scale bullion producer, hand-pouring silver ingots in sizes from 1 oz all the way up to 200 oz — 1, 5, 10, 20 oz, kilo, 50, 100, and 200. Collectors estimate total production across all of the early pours at roughly 45,000 pieces. Most were serial numbered on the reverse, every stamp applied by hand, and the serials are often erratic — no two bars exactly alike.

The classic hallmark carries the Mint’s swan logo under a “CYGNIS INSIGNIS” banner — Latin for “distinguished for swans,” a motto that first appeared on a 1929 Western Australia centenary medallion — along with THE PERTH MINT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, the weight, 999 fine, and the serial number.

Here’s the part that explains why you almost never see them: for years, the Perth Mint itself was buying these old ingots back from the public and melting them down to encourage sales of new product. The mint destroyed its own vintage pours. That, as much as anything, is why survivors are so scarce — and why the 10 oz size has developed its own collector following, with the recognized Type A, B, C, and D varieties.

These bars truly are among my very favorite of any old pours out there. There is a certain quality in the way they were made and a certain beauty that they achieve with age. Below are pieces from my collection. I’ll be doing more with Perth in the future with a focus on their smaller highly rare and collectible 1 oz ingots — the serialized ones are estimated at fewer than 500 pieces, and a serial-numbered example brought $1,705 at auction in early 2024.

There is a good resource to learn about some of the various pieces and varieties at allengelhard.com.