Pulled the trigger on one of these yesterday. I read that there's only 5000 minted. Does anyone have more info on these beautiful coins? With a low mintage, will they appreciate in value? This is my first foray into foreign coins so any help is much appreciated!
Most of the specialty Perth Mint coins are extremely limited, usually all of them are 5k or 10k mintage numbers, this is not unusual for the Perth Mint. As for value, it just all depends on the overall demand once they're sold out. Some stick around their issue value. Some go up. Just appreciate the coin if your a collector and not worry about it's value I say. I bought the Australian Sea Life II - The Reef - Octopus because I love octopuses. It's limited to just 10k mintage but still available. http://www.perthmint.com.au/catalog...f-octopus-2012-half-oz-silver-proof-coin.aspx
It's not a series that's for everyone, they are certainly unique. My personal favorite is the Funnel Web Spider.
I wouldn't trust the perth mint with there stated mintages. I bought the first high relief 1 oz Dragon and they stated at the time limited mintage of 7500 pieces worldwide. That is until they decided to inform us of there true policy which is if they change the packaging at all they can then mint even more of what 'supposed to be limited' coin you own. After this occurred I myself no longer purchase any coins from Perth for future Numismatic value. See here Perth's explanation and how the true max mintage of the HR dragon is 30,000 coins. They claim they won't mint more and have changed 'the limited to this packaging mintage' on future issues. But with them recently re issuing Kookaburras as far back as 1992 up to max mintage (which by the way they don't reveal to the public). Who's to say they won't mint even more of whatever 'limited' coin they sucker you into buying. http://blog.perthmint.com.au/2012/10/26/perth-mint-mintages-what-we-mean/
Hmmm, that does kinda feel a bit underhanded, but it is what it is. Takes away some of the possible value, but still, even at 30k that is a decently low mintage. I do have to say I really like the designs simply from an art perspective, and I will certainly have to add some of these to my collection during this year.
The design is what drew me to this coin as well. Plus the mint packaging and presentation looks to be well done. Minus a silver collapse, I think it will do no worse than hold its value in the near future with a good possibility of a small appreciation. We shall see!
They are in it to make money not preserve the numi value, IMO i think mints are cluttering the market with silver NCLT and to make matters worse you have speculators grabbing it up hoping for next RedBack Spider.
The problem with the low mintages of Perth mint releases, rcm releases, etc., are that low mintage releases are now commonplace, making them not so rare. I purchased a purple dragon last, year, 5,000 mintage, supposedly exclusive to the Brisbane Coin Show. Well, I bought it from the mint, so it's obviously not exclusive to the show. They releases about four other coin show exclusives, making it not so exclusive as well. I look at it all the time, very impressed with it, but knowing I may never get the purchase price back. I kind of told myself I would never make such a purchase again. Unfortunately, I think these will settle in near melt in the future. They are flooding the market because they are raking in cash since the bullion market is exploding. If you can flip a spider coin now, I would. I think the price will dive to melt in the future once the False exclusive label is exposed to all.
