Australia's Lunar Series has cycled through two complete twelve-year runs since 1996, making 2021's Ox the third iteration of that animal in the Perth Mint's bullion program. The sixth portrait of Elizabeth II — the Jody Clark effigy adopted from 2015 onward — appears here on what turned out to be one of the final years before her death in September 2022 rendered the entire portrait series a closed set. Perth's .9999 fineness standard, rather than the more common .999 used by most sovereign mints, has been a consistent house distinction since the late 1990s.
Australia's Lunar Series has cycled through two complete twelve-year runs since 1996, making 2021's Ox the third iteration of that animal in the Perth Mint's bullion program. The sixth portrait of Elizabeth II — the Jody Clark effigy adopted from 2015 onward — appears here on what turned out to be one of the final years before her death in September 2022 rendered the entire portrait series a closed set. Perth's .9999 fineness standard, rather than the more common .999 used by most sovereign mints, has been a consistent house distinction since the late 1990s.