In my view, this is just plain wrong... 1/10 oz silver coins for $15 - taking advantage of the "new to the market know-nothing" investors. http://www.perthmint.com.au/catalogue/australian-koala-2011-1_10oz-silver-coin.aspx
They're not being marketed as a bullion coin for stacking purposes - pretty much everything through the perthmint.com.au website (as opposed to the perthmintbullion.com.au bullion trading website) is numismatic, and packaged/marketed as such. Frankly anyone buying silver at $149.50/oz for bullion investment purposes from a website that displays the current spot price on the homepage deserve to lose their shirts!
Indeed, they are being marketed as a "gift". A gift that costs approx $3.00 in silver content & $12.00 for the manufacture & cardboard. Not much of a gift in my line of thinking. But hey, some may enjoy this kind of thing. Edit: I should clarify my stance. From a commercial viewpoint, the Perth Mint have probably made a product to meet a certain consumer - I am obviously not their target audience.
Especially when you can buy the 2011 Koala 1oz on the collectors card for $39 then 1/10 oz @ $15 does seem absurd.
Or is it a case of they know something we don't ? A sign of things to come perhaps. A bit early but certainly on the cards in a few years.
I got the email bulletin and saw 1/10 oz silver and thought, hello this is alright. About a millisecond later I thought, I'll stick with predecimal junk at spot for my low mass coins. Like SilverSale, I'm not their target demographic. Mark.
The closest in the Aussie junk market for a 1/10th oz coin is a post war shilling at 0.0909 oz silver weight With spot @ 29.92, this would make the silver value of this coin around $2.70 in silver. ie You can regularly score these under $5 per coin even on ebay, usually a LOT cheaper if you buy a 1kg pre-decimal bag from your dealer. So it's very obvious this coin from the Perth mint is not designed for stacking, but rather as a gift. The premium bite on the mintage is too high to be considered as a stackers' coin. THAT SAID, I agree, this would be an absolutely fantastic 'introduction' coin for anyone looking to start stacking. Maybe go one of these, plus Mike Maloney's Guide to investment in Gold and Silver and a 100 trillion Zimbabwe note. Perfect gift and well under $50 combined.
Seems like a fair price to me. A high % over spot but you can't bank percentages. I just picked up 2000 tee shirts for $1 each, they usually retail for about $8. Whack a 50 cent label on them and they retail for anywhere between $30 and $70. What bothers me is the company I got them from was making a profit. The consumer thinks they are paying the extra for quality but they are infact only paying for marketing and sponsorship. I would much prefer 2 or 3 of these than 1 $1 tee shirt with a 50cent logo.
I refuse to wear any company logo on my clothes. ( Still waiting for a SS logo to wear with pride) Vinnes etc are my place to shop.
i think it just for the tourists & pensioners that go through looking for a cheap trinket . $9.95 would be a better price for the battlers its definately a money making exercise
Its highway robbery for sure. Yes there is obviously a fixed cost to making and marketing these, but $15 is ridiculous. I picked up 2 half ounce koalas today for $15 a piece for example.
Would be interesting to know in $'s the difference in profit between one of these, a 1/2 oz coin and 1kg bar.
How about knowing what the fabrication cost differences are? From Bron's videos here: http://www.perthmintbullion.com/blog/blog.aspx?CntTagID=c7a5e7ba-41b2-4def-a290-eb8f9a11e58b
Please correct me if I have this wrong - A 1oz silver coin costs $10 to fabricate, a 2 oz about $15 and a 5 oz $25. Doesn't sound rite. You can buy bulk 1oz lunars for around $33. Allowing $10 for fabrication you're only paying $23 for the silver and that's supposed to cover all the other overheads.
Did you mean $1 to fabricate ? I've been monitoring the 'best prices' on the market over the past few weeks and the average 'best dealer' premium over spot was about 10%. If spot was $30 then the dealer sold for $33 before sales tax. Assuming the dealer made $2 profit then that leaves $1 for coin fabrication only. I am quoting bullion coins like Maples, Libertads, Eagles and Philharmonics - not the Perth Mint or Pandas etc.
