Australia's legal tender gold bullion program has long competed with the Krugerrand and Maple Leaf for institutional buyers, and the Perth Mint's four-nines purity standard — finer than the Krugerrand's .9167 — was a deliberate market positioning decision made in the early 1990s to attract refiners and central bank purchasers who specified minimum fineness in their procurement contracts. The Koala series itself dates to 1980, making it one of the longer-running bullion programs in continuous production.
Ian Rank-Broadley's fourth portrait of Elizabeth II, adopted by the Perth Mint in 1999, remained in use until the mint transitioned to Jody Clark's effigy — this 2016 date falls among the final years of that portrait's run on Australian bullion issues.
Australia's legal tender gold bullion program has long competed with the Krugerrand and Maple Leaf for institutional buyers, and the Perth Mint's four-nines purity standard — finer than the Krugerrand's .9167 — was a deliberate market positioning decision made in the early 1990s to attract refiners and central bank purchasers who specified minimum fineness in their procurement contracts. The Koala series itself dates to 1980, making it one of the longer-running bullion programs in continuous production.
Ian Rank-Broadley's fourth portrait of Elizabeth II, adopted by the Perth Mint in 1999, remained in use until the mint transitioned to Jody Clark's effigy — this 2016 date falls among the final years of that portrait's run on Australian bullion issues.