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Monkey King: A Perth Mint Year of the Monkey Novelty

Friday, October 7, 2016 20:27

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Earlier this year I recommended a couple of silver bullion coins (for those interested in buying silver), those being the 1oz Perth Mint Silver Koala Coin 2016 and the 1oz Perth Mint Silver Kangaroo Coin 2015. This post will be a brief coverage of a third (and one that I have purchased personally).

I have covered the reasons for my preference toward Perth Mint silver bullion coins many times in the past, they have a (relatively) low mintage (compared with many other silver bullion coins), are minted with aesthetically pleasing designs, often come individually capsuled with a quality finish and while priced as bullion coins on release, often attract additional premiums in the future.

I haven’t purchased any of the recent lunar bullion coins from Perth Mint in bulk (the last was the horse). While the designs for the goat, monkey and recently released rooster are fine (realistic depictions), they are somewhat less interesting animals than those earlier in the series such as the dragon, snake and horse, which in my view makes them less attractive to buyers. From time to time Perth Mint releases additional lunar coins during the year, which don’t match the standard lineup. Examples have included a coloured gold dragon coin, the design of which differed to the standard release and privy coins (of which I’m not a fan). Another which I only recently discovered is the ‘Monkey King’, produced as a one-off, but falls within the ‘Lunar / Year of the Monkey’ category of coins.

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B4INREMOTE-aHR0cHM6Ly8yLmJwLmJsb2dzcG90LmNvbS8tZTNxRXV2NUxLcEUvVl9oVzM2UkpSNUkvQUFBQUFBQUFEM2svaXc1ZU9oV3RKSnN2ZE9zUUFwamRWelg3NzZDV3E5anB3Q0xjQi9zMjAwL01vbmtleSUyQktpbmclMkJQZXJ0aCUyQk1pbnQlMkJTaWx2ZXIlMkJDb2luLmpwZw==

The Monkey King silver coin was struck in 1/2oz, 1oz, 2oz, 5oz, 10oz, and kilo sizes. However, only the 1oz size was released at retail by The Perth Mint in presentation packaging (now unavailable on the website). The other coins were manufactured on behalf of Perth Mint’s international wholesale clients.

Maximum mintages for the Monkey King silver coin are as follows (though final sales may end up lower):

1/2oz = 100,000

1oz = 100,000

2oz = 10,000

5oz = 10,000

10oz = 5,000

1 kilo = 5,000.

The Perth Mint housed these coins in capsules for delivery to wholesale customers (e.g. Baoquan) who were responsible for any additional presentation packaging (as pictured in this thread on Silver Stackers).

I purchased a box (100) of these coins, they are available from Perth Bullion and APMEX. These were the cheapest prices I could find, there are other dealers selling them for substantially higher prices. At the time of writing there are only 113 available from APMEX and 255 at Perth Bullion (was 355 earlier this morning). I expect that once they are sold at dealers the premium for these coins will begin to rise.

The one negative aspect is that this coin doesn’t naturally fall into a standard series that may see collectors trying to collect an ‘entire set’ in the same way as the standard silver lunar coins, koalas, kookaburras and kangaroos. However I suspect the novelty of the coin and Chinese origin of the design may see them sought out by collectors and investors alike, increasing their value over purchase price. It was a little more over spot than I would normally like to pay (A$11, which is almost 50% more at current prices), however think this purchase will turn out ok and took an opportunity to ‘buy the dip’ with the recent pullback in the price of silver.