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World's Biggest Gold Coin Minted In Australia
First time accepted submitter shocking writes "The Perth Mint has created a gold coin that is just over one tonne in weight and worth over 50 million AUD. From the article: 'A team of a dozen people have worked since late last year to create the coin which measures 80 centimeters wide and 12 centimeters deep, featuring a kangaroo on one side and the Queen's motif on the other.' Ron Paul eat your heart out!"
Now we mine BitCoins!
Now I CAN imagine you stamp it with a kangaroo. But the friggin' queen ?? Bad company for the poor beast.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
...build the world's biggest couch so it can fall between the cushions.
These will be in public circulation next year. All Australians are advised to purchase a flatbed truck for the currency switch.
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Only available on Goldline!!! ... but for $60 million, because gold is only going up ....
Are they at least going to do something cool with it?
or couch
I'd like to meet the guy who can use this as pocket change. The Jolly Green Giant comes to mind, though. So the meet should be at a safe distance, I suspect. {^_-}
...erm. Shiny? They seem to have worked hard to make it look like a Nerf gold coin. And, like, I KNOW you folks dig kangaroos but um....there are cooler things than kangaroos to make 24 karat pictures of.
The coin has a "worth" of 1 million AUD but contains 50 million AUD of gold...
And you wonder why the economy is down the crapper. Also... 50 million worth of gold. Perhaps some better use could be found for it then a vanity piece to show just how much Australia bows before its British superiors?
I would have shaped in the form of a blade and put it in a guillotine. Some might scoff at the sharpness of such a blade but with that weight it will do the job. Just more messily, mad max style.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
and getting a pie n coke
You could still file a few kilograms of gold from this coin without anybody noticing. Basically, the whole design is crude and ugly IMHO.
*fumbles change in pocket*
"How do you get THIS in the vending machine?!?"
*cue 'Crocodile Dundee'* "No, THIS is a coin, mate!"
(My sincere apologies to Australians, but I just could not help myself. I developed a healthy respect for Aussie troops during my stint in the US Army:-)
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Is this one anything like the supposed 640 000 (yup, 640 K) gold bars are Fort Knox, that are, according to the Chinese who bought some and were deceived, filled with tungstene? (because tungstene has the exact same weight as gold but is 1000 times cheaper)
?
From what I've read, all the gold in the world that has been mined could fill something like 2 olympic swimming pools, or something like that.
Considering this is like 32 inches x 5 inches, think of that sitting in the bottom of an olympic pool. Not too big, but still pretty impressive considering the relative size.
Don't steal. The government hates competition.
I hope this is put on public display. Take one lot at that, and then you will really understand what it means for your country to have debts of trillions.
Display boards with lots of digits just don't get the message across.
"See that there big 'ole coin? That's what a Wall Street Banker got as a bonus, after the 'guvment bailed out his bank.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones
stone coins weighing up to 4 tons and up to 2000 years old.
Read what I mean, not what I wrote.
It's funny how Hitch-hiker stuff seems to have a bearing on real life so often...
"...and the Triganic Pu has its own very special problems. Its exchange rate of eight Ningis to one Pu is simple enough, but since a Ningi is a triangular rubber coin six thousand eight hundred miles along each side, no one has ever collected enough to own one Pu. Ningis are not negotiable currency, because the Galactibanks refuse to deal in fiddling small change"
And I bet the banks would refuse to deal with this gigantic gold coin.
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This being petty cash, like the Triganic Ningi, it isn't worth hanging on to, since the banks wont exchange them.
Because coins = lulz
The Perth Mint as created a gold coin that is just over one tonne in weight and worth over $50 million AUD.
Correct grammar would be "The Perth Mint 'as created a gold coin..."
It's about the size of a garbage can lid. Gives you a bit of perspective on the density of gold.
404: sig not found.
Coins are struck from planchets, this is just BS.
Many farmers think of kangaroos as pests.
They put a kangaroo on one side.
They put the queen on the other.
Is there a message here?
i am completely disgusted by this
what a waste of bloody time and gold
And you wonder why the economy is down the crapper.
As an Australian, I don't wonder this, I have never had to wonder this as we recovered from the effects of the GFC within six months.
Australia's economy is doing quite well right now thank you very much. The high price of minerals, energy and agri products are benefiting Australia right now because minerals, energy and agri are our three biggest exports. The AUD buys 1.06 USD at the moment as a sign of just how strong the Australian economy is. Unemployment is at 5%, which is quite normal for Oz and our debt is decreasing (despite what the Murdoch rags say, 2009/2010 budget was in the black).
Whoever modded the parent post up needs to be melted down and minted into the worlds dumbest coin.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Will someone please explain to n00bs like myself how Ron Paul is relevant to this story?
I am not really here right now.
They will sell it for a time in bulk to China expecting to make it up in volume. Then China will swoop in and buy the company and the mine. Then shut it down, move the operation to CHina and sell it at a lower cost, while keeping the coin the same.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I wonder if a future archaeologists digs that up, what they will wonder? They will probably assume that we had a new race of 50' women take over the world, but that it was so few, that only a few of these coins were found. Then upon finding 'attack of the 50' woman' movie, they will know that man was wiped by that race.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The US mint often creates "collectable" coins that are sold for much more than face value. The collectors seem to be willing to spend money on coins that are double struck to give it a very glossy shine, not to mention coins with unusual face artwork. It seems some people have more money than good cents.
To assay it properly you need to take core samples?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I like shiny things, but this is a bit ridiculous. We could have used those precious metals for something more productive. Just saying. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Electronics
we want everyone to know it.
Coins are struck on presses with dies and planchets. This is cast. The relief is very high: this item would not stack. It really resembles a medal more than a coin.
I would have been much more impressed if they had constructed a press with sufficient power to strike such a large coin.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
There has been a competition between the Perth Mint (which is separate from the Royal Australian Mint) and the Royal Canadian Mint for some time now. The RCM held the record for the largest gold coin (which was 100kg in weight), beating the European Austrian Mint's 31kg gold coin. The difference is that the RCM coin was actually sold to at least one buyer, while the Perth Mint's coin is more for show than for actual collecting.
And no doubt the RCM folks are already planning to find some way to top the Perth Mint's coin.
[Disclaimer: I do not work for any of the mint's mentioned, I'm just a collector of coins. I find it hard enough to justify to myself buying a 5oz silver coin, much less something in the 1+kg range.]
I wonder where you get the opinion that the economy is down the crapper? Sure the US is financially imploding and Europe is coming along for the same default swap fueled ride, but Australia on the other hand avoided a recession and on the whole is doing quite well.
What you think is insane is actually good economic policy. The gold coin is not in circulation and as such before this little experiment the government had $50m in gold, after it still has $50m in gold, nothing's changed there.
As for printing a low value on it, the goal here was to make a big frigging coin. If they printed $50m on it then it effectively has 50 times the effect on the value of the currency. $1m is a token number picked low to ensure that this awesome experiment doesn't have an effect on the economy.
As for bowing down? All Australian coins have the queen on the back. You just shitty because we didn't print a picture of a US president? It's not like we're giving this coin to our token figureheads.
Your post show complete ignorance of the economy and of politics.
...why?
This coin is useless unless I can unwrap it and there is chocolate inside.
Knock-knock...
Hello Australia...
TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!!
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
“[Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”
- Warren Buffett
That would be really impressive considering the presses that are currently used for minting US coins. That press would be more impressive than the coin itself and personally I would love to know the tonnage of that press especially since coins aren't struck hot. It probably is a real coin as it carries a face value and as such probably is considered legal tender.
Time to offend someone
I can see it now:
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This offer Includes in this offer is a complete history of how this coin came to be.
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All products come with a 30-day inspection period with a full refund (excluding shipping and handling) if not satisfied.
To order, call toll free 1-800-555-SUKR now, operators are standing by.
This can be yours for only 3 easy payments of $19.95 plus $499.99 shipping and handling. Please allow 4-6 months for delivery.
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That is the stupidest thing I ever heard. That won't fit in any vending machine around here.
He didn't use minted coins, but preferred nuggets and grain traded by scales. He was killed because he wouldn't surrender his guns despite living in the middle of nowhere surrounded by alligators.
Learn2Aussie.
Heads says I try to think of an "In Soviet Russia" joke.
Tails says I find someone I don't like to mod down.
Have gnu, will travel.
Look at the picture. For the amount of work they put in, it's a really ugly design. Couldn't they find a decent artist?
Was there some purpose for this coin, other than an oddity to attract tourists?
Given that it is more than 99% pure gold, it would be exceptionally soft, and therefore very easy to press with perhaps a 100 tonne or 200 tonne press or using a die in a drop forge ... A problem with pressing or "forging" a coin is that a certain amount of material is trimmed off as it is squeezed from the seams of the mold... On insignificant metals like nickel or zinc, this is not a big deal, but when you have gold, any "waste" trimmings/flashings is certainly extremely expensive. It is less wasteful to "cast" the gold and not waste any than to press/forge it in a die and have a bunch of oddly shaped gold that must be accounted for - expecially for a coin this size...
This, is a coin!
After casting there was some extra bit of carving to create the ridges on the side, and I'm sure they recovered that gold.
More like, World's Most Expensive Manhole Cover. Something that big isn't really a coin...
Why isn't it minted as a $50M AUD coin?
Are they that dumb or do they know something about the collapse of gold value that we don't?
And why is it being displayed upside down?
It's a coin because it is legal tender. Thats the reason for the Queen obverse and the 1 Million value. If you were mad enough you could take it down the shop and they would have to accept it.
So this is why they couldn't provide me with decent service when I wanted to order 100 uncirculated $1 coins as client Christmas gifts?
If you wear a size 43 european shoe which is the most common size mens show sold in Europe or you wear a 42 or 44 (those three sizes together accounting for nearly 80% of all mens shoes sold in Europe) which is close enough to a size 43, then your foot is actually a foot or damn close to it in size.
So, while I appreciate that you are trying to help people visualize things in a way they'll understand, the fact is, while most people in the world would prefer to make precise measurements in the metric system, visualizing the size of a cube of gold relative to a component of ones body especially when estimating is most likely more effective.
And last I checked, most carpenters in europe are still purchasing their lumber in thumb measurements, the approximate with of a common mans thumb. Also know as... wait for it... and inch.
Please also realize that in areas like Sicily, while not legal tender, prices for most things are still marked in Lira... then when you want to buy it, the shop clerk will break out a calculator and figure out how many euro you owe them if you don't have any lira available.
Just because other standards are set, it doesn't mean they are universally used.