Suspected this was the case - confirmed by the mint this week: http://www.perthmintbullion.com/blog/blog/11-11-23/Koala_Now_Set_For_January_Launch.aspx If I'm reading it correctly, the smallest bullion coin available from the Perth Mint for the next 6 weeks will be the 10oz Dragon and Kookaburra. 1/2oz, 2oz and 5oz Dragons remain suspended from production, and 1/2oz Koalas won't launch until January.
theyre just trying to sell their 2011 stock thats all it is, and looking at the site i think theyre succeeding
that giant coin was a dissapointment, they did it just to do it, should have been at least 99999 if not something new like 999999
Question is whether it is a silver shortage or a capacity issue in terms of production. Sounds more like a capacity issue.
I've seen some 2oz and 5oz Dragons change hands at stupid prices - especially considering that they will be remade in 2012 and are unlimited mintage.
In addition... Same goes for the half oz dragons...some really good prices. With a large mintage of the dragon 1/2oz already in collector and stacker hands as 1/2oz Red coloured bullion coins...50,000 or 48,000 depending on which COA you read, plus the 10,000 Coloured proofs, 4,000 silver proofs released in Russia, 20,000 of the 2011 BEIJING INTERNATIONAL COIN and the fact that we don't know how many BU bullion coins were released (Last time they were on Perth Mint Bullion site was 14 September 2011) we might be saying bye, bye to the 1/2oz BU dragon. I'd say Perth would be flat-out minting 1/2oz bullion Koala's and if they have the resources to mint more 2s and 5's (Dragons) they might just do that, but to be honest I don't think the market, especially the Chinese would be too happy to have more dragon coins available. I know there are a lot of stackers who didn't buy the 1/2oz, 2oz and 5oz coins back in September they thought the coins would be readily available but that may nbot be the case. Perth will probably tie up one of the presses for the 2012 5oz Proof Koala. They've got lots of other coins on the drawing board so we may see some consolidation at Perth. I personally think they will be re-assessing not only their minting capacity but their whole distribution network. There's not much point striking coins if they don't have the capacity to take orders and deliver. As you guys know, there's plenty of disgruntled stackers in Australia, if they re-open their bullion web-site to International private orders, they would soon be overwhelmed; and of course the potential for many customers, to be un-happy. Having said that, if the spot price of silver does increase significantly, Perth may concentrate on the larger coins such as the 10oz and 1kilo Kookaburra and Dragon coins, after all they got that new press earlier this year to deal with the demand for 1 kilo coins and would like to sell as much product as they can if spot increases significantly. Perth certainly has some challengers ahead! If all of their proposed coins (2012 and 2013) are minted they are going to be very busy for a few more years. Anyways, we should be in for some exciting months ahead, happy stacking and all the best for 2012.
Well .... the same thing happened in Dec 2010 with the 5/10oz Rabbits .... and they never ended up making them again.
