Current releases as they stand, from left to right, with definitive mintages: Double Mirror Penny - mintage 500, closed Mirror/Frosted Penny (XAG frosted) - mintage 500, closed Frosted/Mirror Ram (XAG mirror) - mintage 25, closed Double Frosted Ram - mintage 300, closed Double Mirror Ram - mintage 12, closed Mirror/Frosted Ram (XAG frosted) - mintage 25, closed 2013 Buffalo (dated) - mintage 16,000, closed There is no double frosted version of the Penny design - only a mirror die was produced for the Penny side. None of the SBA produced rounds are dated, but they are all 2012 production. There is only one version of the 2013 Buffalo. Everything on the list above was "released" by being offered for sale to the public. Not shown is the 2013 Symposium round, which has a 2014 dated obverse, sharing the same XAG die as 2014 Buffaloes. 2014 Buffalo Type 1 - mintage 2,750, closed 2014 Buffalo Type 2 - still in production
You should do a Bank of China and ensure a lack of quality control results in some "Big Ear" Frosted Rams or "Swollen Balls" Buffalo. You'd make a killing with the varieties.
Felt bad off the bat with the double digit mintages of a couple of those - we produced the four combinations of the Ram with the best of intentions, but the mirror Ram just wouldn't strike properly, and we culled the frosted/mirror Ram because of minting costs resulting in low sales. The double frosted Ram has a mintage of only 200 - yet it was only $2 dearer than the Buffalo - which has a current mintage of 14,000 at the moment, with more to come before the 2013 die is retired. $2 made a big difference to market acceptance.
Is there a 24ct gilded buffalo or is this just someone having fun with a gold marker pen ? www.ebay.com.au/itm/141023731380
Those are aftermarket gilding, not done by us. That's a reverse of the one I've handled, which was a gilded Buffalo, not a gilded background. Have XRF'd one of these - it is a proper 24K gilding. But not part of the series, any more than drilling a hole in one would make a new variety
GP, could you include all the mintage figures please. Just so all the reference material regarding these coins is in one place.
I prefer not to have mirror, since milk spot would make it look bad. can we have the "xag" on the buffalo thigh ?
Found the mintage figures... http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-36529-intrinsic-tender-rounds.html All production of these has now ceased. Pennys and Rams officially rare as buggery.
I have two complete collections - CK may have a third, as far as I know they are the only complete assembled sets. It was never the intention to have "super rare" versions, but production pressure issues with the mirror Ram die led to one-off test production runs before the die was removed from use. The frosted/mirror version of the Ram was suspended due to higher production costs - the polished planchets simply cost more and at the time they were released there was no market for rounds that cost what they did.
The production quality of the pennys is excellent. Pretty sure they were over $40 when released and the cheapest was $33.20 when the last were retailed by Goldstackers. I hunted all versions of the Xags and have samples of all except the double mirror.
Great! Thanks both for sharing very useful info. The design of coins is very "simple", yet very amazing. Similar as with Norfed. That's why it caught my attention first time I saw coins in "My favorite coin topic". I wonder has anyone any idea about their popularity outside Australia. Thanks!