Perth Mint Price

Anyone who had a chance to listen to the Cointalk radio show this week will hear a long and enthusiastic review of the current Canadian Mint trends and mintages. Personally I've thought that glow in the dark coins were a bit over the top. But what is more interesting to me is the trends with the Perth Mint. They've always been premium proces but I think they are reaching a breaking point on prices.

IMO. I was looking closely at the 5 piece platinum discovery set because I think I've really like the small jewel aspect of the coins. But spending 1400 dollars for a half ounce of Platinum is just too much. I could see paying a couple of hundred dollars over spot because of the design and beuaty of the coins, but that price is just too much.

Then I found it on Talisman for $1200. I thought maybe, but I would have to be blown away by the design. So when I was Philadelphia at the ANA, I looked at every vendor including the Perth Mint itself to see if I could find one to look at. Nobody had it I ended up picking up one silver golden frog at way too much money but ... I don't know. Its no bargain at all. I think they might be pricing themselves out of their own market.

Other that the extremely hot issues, like the recent Funnel Web Spider, some of the issues aren't even selling out...perhaps even sluggish in sales When they tip the scales, they undermine their own business model.

 

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Folks must be paying it as they sell. They look very neat. I mostly buy for the silver though. I have very few Perth Mint bullion coins due to prices that I can get two ASE, Maples, or Aust Phil., for one Perth Mint Kangaroo etc.

 

Yeah but some are not selling out. Its not so simple any more.

 

Don't like the price, simply don't buy it. It's just that easy. :yes:

 

I like the Lunar series that the Perth puts out. Reasonably priced if you buy them when they are released.

 

I have found two goodPerth Mint deals in the past; Australian Silver Koala's and the AustralianSilver Lunar series!

 

I'm not too sure what people think but other than US bullion coin issues, it's nearly impossible to obtain "bullion coins" from other mints close to the spot price unless it's secondary market where sellers couldn't care less about how much they sell it for. Newer "coins" are easily +10-20% markup. Could be wrong about Canadian coins. Please let me know if this is wrong.

 

I see Canadian Silver Maples, Austrian silver Philharmonics, and Silver Mexican Libertad Onza Coins for less than ASE at $4 over spot around here and often online. All other World mints tend to be higher.

 

These days IMO due to high premium and spot prices going side ways with any new modern issue you are better off waiting a couple years and picking it up for cheap in secondary markets, chance of them retaining value like Deadly and Dangerous or Discover Australia or Koala series is extremely slim.

 

As SilverForLife said, the Philharmonic, Maple Leaf and Libertad are priced very close to the ASE. The newer Canada Wildlife bullion coins are as well. Also, the Fiji Taku, Armenia Noah's Ark and Somalia Elephant are not out of line either, if you get them soon after they are released.

 

100% agree! :thumb:

 

I think the silver Perth coins aside form the Kook, Koala, and Kangaroo coins for bullion invrstment, are collectors market coins and price differently. But the stretch between metal price and coinage price is becoming a difficult stretch.

 

How much is the Perth spread over metal value?

 

It can't be helped mrbrklyn - cost of living in Australia is surprisingly higher than you think. Had a few American friends who came over and they were gobsmacked over the prices of some things here.

Just to take some things for example - minimum wage here is about 12-14 USD / hr. Put that in context in silver oz, that's about 2-3 hrs of work. (dependent on exchange rate, spot metal prices etc) Not too sure what it is over there but I'm sure you have to work a lot harder. Property prices average about 300,000 - 500,000 dollars these days in cities, even more in major cities; probably twice as much.

Tax rates? 27-47%, depending on how much you earn. There's no way you can make goods in Australia cheap unless it's outsourced or really specialized goods. Pointless to complain about expensive goods here - even mint sets cost a fair bit. I can't name any goods that is a bargain here other than health products possibly.

 

Most if not all the World's Mints are in large high cost of living cities with $$$ labor to go with it. Austrialia has its own silver with great mineral deposits as compared to 95% of these World natons. I think you make a small point, but not enought to justify Austrialian silver being so expensive. Seems someone is making a big profit some where.

 

I can guarantee you have no clue of how expensive mining operation here is in Australia. A mining operator earn at least 100,000 dollars and that's just driving a dump truck LESS THAN half of an year. I repeat, 100,000 dollars for half an year. Multiply that by operation crews, add equipment, plant cost, royalty tax, etc - they add up really really quick. A new caterpillar 785C truck is easily in the range of 3 million dollars; latest 797F is closer to 10 million. Waiting list for a dump truck is probably 1-2 years. Tyres alone cost more than 70,000 dollars each and that's IF you can get them. Australian dollar and US dollars are about on par so you can read them all as US dollars.

If you can argue against this or can quote reliable figures, I am more than happy to see them. Not interested in seeing US figures because most components have to be imported from the US, Germany, Japan.

http://content.mycareer.com.au/salary-centre/mining-oil-gas

Please feel free to use the above link to grasp how expensive an operation can be and that's just labour cost alone.

Sure, you can argue about high commodity prices but a lot of companies are targeting low grade ore at the moment because mining often goes in a cycle of boom and bust. There is a need to keep high ore body for reserve. A gold mine in New South Wales that I have been to is targeting gold ore at 0.6g/tonne of rock. That's more than 50 tonnes of rock before you can recover 1 ounce of gold after selectively mining the ore body.

 

They sell Kookaburras at near market prices. Really, as a buyer, who cares what their operational costs are. I care about the spread between metal prices and coin prices. I'm willing to pa a premium, but not more that 3x spot for platinum coins.

 

I don't know where you see Kookaburra coins close to near market prices. There's an additional 10% tax if it's bought locally in Australia. Just checked the Perth Mint and I don't see any silver coins close to 30 dollars / ounce available for sale. Cheapest I can see is the Koala coin, which is 57.50 + 10% tax.

http://www.perthmint.com.au

Yes, you can potentially buy at secondary market at a cheaper price as well as in the US because of the taxes.

Price is a reflection of supply versus demand as well as sustainability of a business. If you don't want to buy bullions at that price, it's not a problem. There are other buyers that are happy to pay such prices. Might as well apply to everyone else who wants to pay higher prices for 'luxury' goods that could be subtituted with something else such as hand watches, cars, jewellery, etc.

If you reckon whinging will help to drop prices, please feel free to do it at your choice. I'm happier spend all that effort getting a better paid job which pays in the longer run. Or you may wish to share your experience complaining to the Perth Mint about their ridicious prices.

 

Personally, I couldn't care less what their expenses are. I only care about the price of the coins, and they are expensive. I've thought of buying some only to give it up when doing the evaluation of the costs. There are better fish to fry.

Amanda

 

Sounds to me the Perth Mint should import cheaper World Silver rounds and save their expensive silver for the future. I bet the Austrian Mint imports most of it's Silver and they produce one of the top three most affordable Silver bullion coins around here (1 oz Silver Austrian Philharmonic Coin).