The Wedge-tailed Eagle series from Perth was designed to compete directly with the high-relief market dominated by the U.S. Mint's American Eagle and the Royal Canadian Mint's Maple Leaf issues — Perth's answer being finer gold at .9999 and a deliberately sculptural strike that required multiple press passes per planchet. The high-relief format places unusual stress on dies, limiting output per die pair and contributing to the relatively modest annual mintages across both years of this issue.
The wedge-tailed eagle itself, Aquila audax, is the largest bird of prey on the Australian continent — a deliberate choice of national symbol over the more internationally familiar kangaroo.
The Wedge-tailed Eagle series from Perth was designed to compete directly with the high-relief market dominated by the U.S. Mint's American Eagle and the Royal Canadian Mint's Maple Leaf issues — Perth's answer being finer gold at .9999 and a deliberately sculptural strike that required multiple press passes per planchet. The high-relief format places unusual stress on dies, limiting output per die pair and contributing to the relatively modest annual mintages across both years of this issue.
The wedge-tailed eagle itself, Aquila audax, is the largest bird of prey on the Australian continent — a deliberate choice of national symbol over the more internationally familiar kangaroo.