I have a question about numbered certificates of authenticity issued by the Perth Mint. Say a coin has a mintage of 10000, but only 3000 were sold according to data released by the Perth Mint. Does that mean that all COAs are going to have a number of at most ~3000? Or is it possible that there will be COA numbers in the 9000s? I guess my question is whether they are randomly assigning COAs to the coins or if they actually receive a consecutive COA number in the order they were made. stackeract.
good question I have heard others state they have seen number COA higher than the official sales figures.
I have one that is slightly higher, but that's possible as they probably produce batches, sell some, and melt the rest of the batch they don't sell. So numbers can slightly overshoot according to how big the batch is that they make, even if all coins receive consecutive numbers.
Places like the post office would probably have a distribution deal whereby any unsold stock could be returned to the mint for a refund. This would mean many more would be released than sold but once returns had been factored in 'official' sales figures may be less than production. I've seen this asked a few times, it would be good to get PM clarification on this one.
