http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1340888400.php [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]also the world’s largest and heaviest gold bullion coin -made from 1 tonne of 99.99% pure gold. Ed Harbuz, CEO of The Perth Mint, stands beside the massive 1 Tonne Australian Gold Kangaroo Coin "We faced an incredible challenge to produce a coin of this scale, so this is a wonderful endorsement of the talent and expertise of those involved," said Ed Harbuz, Perth Mint Chief Executive Officer.[/FONT]
If it was die struck, I would be impressed, but is is basically just a cast sculpture of a coin. I wouldn't mind if they dropped it off at my house though.
http://m.npr.org/story/131934618?url=/blogs/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money Be easy to inflate when they discover concrete.
I wouldn't call it a waste. The gold is still there. It's isn't like they disposed of it or anything. They just made a frivolous novelty from it.
Perth Mint customers are willing to routinely spend $100-350 on an ounce of silver. When this is the case, then they are going to have a LOT of money laying around to spend on frivolous advertising pursuits, such as a ton gold coin. I wonder what kind of base-mount they use when standing the "coin" upright like that. Seems like the sheer weight of the thing would cause the gold to deform. In the least, the reeding along the bottom edge would get flattened.
What is the denomination? It looks like the coin reads $1,000,000 but can't see for sure... maybe it says $1,000,000,000!!
I just noticed that he's handling it by its edges instead of putting his booger-pickers all over the face of the "coin". :thumb:
Frivolous? Seems to me that this is smart advertising at it's best. Instead of spending huge sums on conventional advertisements, they thought outside the box and produced something that made the media (AKA: advertisers) come to them.
I agree. I believe the real "waste" will be the premium anyone pays above melt value for it. The last "world's largest gold coin" sold for melt at auction.