Coins were what first got me interested in silver so I thought I'd post a list of silver bullion coins from around the world with photos for reference. A discussion tends to come up every now and then - hopefully this list is reasonably complete. The list covers the following criteria: - coins (i.e. legal tender in the country of issue with a face value / denomination printed on the coins) (exception made for the Libertad) - 99.9% purity or higher (exception made for the Britannia) - 2011 year printed on the coin - 1 troy oz - issued annually There are plenty of other types of coins including proofs, lunars, commemoratives, colours, privys, etc. However, this list covers the most recognisable / popular bullion coin issued by each country. Australian Kookaburra Denomination $1 Purity 99.9% American Silver Eagle Denomination $1 Purity 99.9% Canadian Maple Denomination $5 Purity 99.99% Austrian Philharmonica Denomination 1.50 Euro Purity 99.9% Chinese Panda Denomination 10 Yuan Purity 99.9% British Britannia Denomination 2 Pounds Purity 95.83% (23 Karat) - but still contains 1 troy oz of silver Mexican Libertad Denomination N/A - strictly not a coin, however, there have been suggestions that Mexico may make the libertad legal currency with a floating value Purity 99.9% Fiji Taku Denomination $2 Purity 99.9% New Zealand Kiwi Denomination $1 Purity 99.9% Perhaps closer to a numismatic rather than a bullion coin as it is carded and has a mintage of only 10,000. Note that another item produced by the New Zealand Mint, the "silver fern" is not a coin, but a 99.99% silver round Somali Elephant Denomination 100 Shillings Purity 99.9% Rwanda Zebra Denomination 50 Francs Purity 99.9% Malawi "Krugerrand" Denomination 50 Kwacha Purity 99.9% Russian St George the Victorious Denomination 3 Rubles Purity 99.9% The 2011 coin is expected to be released later this year around November Kazakhstan Snow Leopard Denomination 1 Tenge Purity 99.99% Not sure when the 2011 coin will be released Andorra Eagle Denomination 1 Diner Purity 99.9% First minted in 2008, not sure when the 2011 coin will be released Other coins - some will say the following coins should also be on the list as they quite popular: Australian Koala Denomination $1 Purity 99.9% Australian Lunar Rabbit Denomination $1 Purity 99.9% Australian Kangaroo Denomination $1 Purity 99.9% Carded Canadian Wildlife Series - Timber Wolf Denomination $5 Purity 99.99% Canadian Wildlife Series - Grizzy Bear Denomination $5 Purity 99.99%
Thank you very much for sharing that.. professionally done and all details are captured nicely. All four thumbs up
Amazing. Some I've never heard of. This list has been attempted before, but never have I seen such a comprehensive version. Want some of them Snow Leopards!
Yep, about 100! No, just kidding - but they do go back to about 1993 I think. They have been discussed somewhere in here - RAM kangaroos threads. They must have run out of kangaroo designs for a while and swapped to wallabies to distract everyone while they figure out how to re-use the old designs! Although, I do like the look og the wallabies for the last two years. 2012 will be another wallaby (if I recall correctly), so 2010, 2011 and 2012 would form a nice set. Good luck if you have the collectors bug - there are quite a few to gather up.
Absolutely.... if only I could get a 10 ounce version of each so I could see the detail in the real thing!
That is awesome mate. So good. Check out the 2 cats on the somali coin. What are they? Cheetahs? Anyway, the beauty of the artwork is reflected in the design of the shield, at first glance both cats are mirror replicas of each other - but unless it's a trick of light - the heads on the cats are different. They could have easily just made the design more symmetrical by copying and reversing each image, but they didn't. Art. Beautiful. It's about the only coin in that range that is captivating in both obverse and reverse. Although there is something alluring about the onza, I just can't put my finger on it.
Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments. I had been meaning to do this for a while and finally got around to it. Always happy to contribute back to a great forum.
They are leopards which is Somalia's Coat of Arms - heavier build than cheetah. Maybe they were intending to reflect the fact that a leopard's (and no doubt cheetah too) spots are like fingerprints. They differ and can be used to identify individual leopards, and so deliberately made them different. Or maybe the artist didn't know they could just reverse it! Well, er.... spotted!
Funny you should mention that TomD - your photos did quite a lot to inspire me to make this post, in particular your ASE and Britannias. I only have the 2011 Britannia on hand, but have some other years on order. I don't have the full set though, so if you have any spare years you want to sell...
Nominal coin weight is 32.45 gms .. "Britannia Silver" is 95.84% purity, therefore the coin does in fact contain "one ounce fine silver" as stated This is no different to the AGE and Krugerrand coins stating "1 oz fine gold", even though they are 22 ct (.917).. nominal coin weight is 33.93 gm..
