The Perth Mint has reported that 230,000 of the 2011 Lunar Rabbits have been sold and the remaining 70,000 are being minted now. 300,000 is the mintage limit for these coins so 76% have already been sold. 1kg Lunars are also showing extremely strong sales. http://www.perthmintbullion.com/blo...r_Rabbits_In_Advance_Of_Chinese_New_Year.aspx
Thanks for the head-ups Matthew. I have already ordered another 200 rabbits, before the price jumps few .
i personally don't like the perth mint's obsession with excessive amounts of frosting and the way the coins are so thin and flat relative to other types of coins... i guess this is the style of australian coins from the australian mint. i hope they do a nice design for the dragon though, i might get a few just on the basis that i was born in the year of the dragon and if the design is a good pretty classic chinese dragon.
I guess if you have only 1 troy ounce to play with, if you make the coin thinner then the diameter and hence design will be larger. This was the case in the 1kg and 1/2 kg coins. The 1kg and 1/2kg coins had the exact same diameter, just the 1kg was twice the thickness. From a "looks" perspective, you got the same amount of design on both the 1 and 1/2 kg coins, just would cost 50% less for the 1/2 kg coins.
Assuming the silver price stays somewhat constant until their release in September, I'd say they will be gone by end of December.
That news explains why Gainesville suddenly sold out of their massive 1oz lunar tiger supply. I have 500 tigers, but only 5 rabbits. Hopefully, I trade the tigers for later Series2 lunar coins.
I am keeping some powder dry for the dragons. But something tells me they won't be cheap come September. Might as well stack now and sell part of the stack to fund the September dragon purchases. Slam
I think the problem will not be mintage, but the price. Are you happy to pay $55 per coin by September? A roll of 20 will be around $1100. Doesn't look great, but at present the current coins are $39.50 each from Perth mint excluding shipping. This already means a roll is around $800. Pretty steep increase, considering they were $600, 3 months ago =D. Might buy more silver now to sell and lock in the price. Also I have noticed the mint does not sell any 5oz and 10oz and 1/2kg coins any more. Is this a permanent thing? Slam
Slam, I believe the shortage of 5, 10 & 1/2 kilo coins is because the PM is concentrating on producing the 1 kilo coins. There is an article about it at the PM site. I saw that article after reading about the 2011 rabbits reaching 300,000. I too will probably sell some of my current silver to buy the dragons. I believe places like Gainesville will pay about spot + $2 for older PM coins. However, I will probably sell some coins on ebay to raise money. Does anyone know what overall percentage it costs to list and sell a coin on ebay, including paypal fees? In other words, if a coin sells for $50 and there is $3 shipping, what total fees would I expect to pay?
TBH, you're probably better off trying to sell them here first. You'll get a lot better than spot + $2.
Ebay.com.au will take 5.25% of your final sale value (excluding postage) PLUS it costs to list your item somewhere between 90c and $2 depending on the format you wish to sell PLUS you lose 4% of the entire transaction (including postage) in PayPal fees. So if you sell a $50 coin, allow for say 10% in costs to sell. Ebay.com will take 12% of your final sale value (excluding postage) PLUS a listing fee which is usually about 50c depending how you sell PLUS you lose 4% in PayPal fees. So if you sell a $50 coin, allow for about 17% in fees to sell.
If you've got the cash, it wouldn't hurt to lock in a few tubes of Rabbits now - the Mouse is already almost impossible to find, the Ox has sort of slipped under the radar but is still around, and the Tigers are being tightly held. Once we get to Dragons, Snakes and Horses, these earlier coins might be tradeable for later issues - if silver behaves how many expect, might as well get the cheap coins locked in now, and trade in future - just think about it - if silver hits $100/oz in the next 7-8 years (that's how long Series II has to run), we'll be paying at least $2200 for a roll of coins.
Try listing them on the International forum here - if enough trading picks up, I'll reintroduce the USA forum that used to be on here. It died from lack of traffic.
I Read that too.I think The rabbit demand will further increase as we approach Chinese new year. I love the rabbit very much too, but got only about 23 of them though....
I just walked past downies, they wanted $105 for a proof rabbit. The release price was 92.50, and they are sold out at the Perth Mint. Might pop down to a post office and buy a few more for trading later. Slam
Nope, 300,000 is the 1oz limit for Series 2 Lunars. The 10kg has a limit of 1,000. All other sizes however dont have a mintage limit. Might see this year for the first time Lunar Coin where other sizes are minted in significantly higher numbers than previous years due to the 1oz hitting 300,000. Be interesting to see how many 2011 Kooks have sold. The 2009 and 2010 Kookaburra 1oz's reached their 300,000 production limits so I'm guessing 2011 will be getting there pretty quick smart.
Yep - reckon this is why the Koalas have been brought up to the same mint spec as the Kookaburra and Lunar - previously Koalas were the poor cousin in mint quality, now they're just a variant on the Kookaburra design. When the Kook/Lunar limits are hit, Koalas will be able to fill the demand for quality Perth Mint coinage.