50 Dollars - Elizabeth II 3rd Portrait - Koala - Platinum

The Perth Mint's platinum Koala series launched in 1988 as a direct response to the global investment bullion market carved open by the Canadian Maple Leaf and the American Eagle. Australia moved aggressively into platinum specifically because South African and Soviet supply dominance of the metal made Western-minted alternatives commercially attractive to institutional buyers. The 1994–95 issues fall within the Ian Rank-Broadley transition period for royal portraits on Commonwealth coinage, though the third Raphael Maklouf effigy was retained on this series slightly longer than on some contemporaneous Australian issues.