Australia completes its silver lunar series 3 years early

[michael_s-migration]

I was surprised to learn that Australia's Perth Mint is completing its silver lunar series this year. Bullion dealers are already starting to sell the uncirculated silver versions of the rat, ox, and tiger. The pig was released late last year, since 2007 really is the year of the pig.

 

In some ways it's nice to be able to finish the series 3 years early, but to me it diminishes the appeal of the series, which is to celebrate each lunar year. If they're going to release 4 "years" in one year, the Perth Mint might as well release 12 "years" every year, to maximize their profits.

 

It reminds me of the Christmas shopping season here in the US starting so early now in November... it just takes away from Christmas Day itself.

 

-Mike

[trozau]

Just speculation on my part: Since they just completed the gold series with the Year of the Pig, maybe they are getting away from the Chinese Lunar series so they want to finish the silver series for the silver customers.

[pendragon1998]

Maybe they should substitute an image of the Australian mint for the pig...

[Conder101]

I haven't looked at mintages, but is it possible that the interest has been declining and they have decided that by the last year the return won't be worth the promotional costs, so by releasing them all this year they are trying to get the sales while the interest is higher and so they can cut promotional costs by doing all three at once. Promote three for the price of one.

[michael_s-migration]

Nope, I guess it's the exact opposite, since they are starting a second lunar series in silver. Downies has an image of the year of the mouse coin, the first in the new series.

 

-Mike

[gmarguli]

I'm not sure where to find the mintages for these, but they seem somewhat popular. Lots of them listed on eBay and they sell pretty well.

 

The quality of them is excellent.