Royal Australian Mint

This write up of the Royal Australian Mint explains exactly who the Australian Mint are and what they deal in and is well worth reading before you decide to buy any gold or silver coins from the Australian Mint.

As always, it is prudent to always do one's own due diligence before buying gold from any gold dealer or mint.

Who are the Royal Australian Mint
As mints go the Australian Mint is quite young. His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh, officially opened the Royal Australian Mint, Canberra, on Monday 22nd February 1965 and the mint was commissioned to produce Australia’s decimal coinage, which was to be introduced into circulation on 14th February 1966.

The Royal Australian Mint is a Division of the Commonwealth Department of the Treasury with the responsibility of producing circulating and numismatic coins for Australia.

Although the Australian Mint replaced the British Royal Mint in the manufacture of coins for Australia, it holds a place in history as the first mint in Australia not to be a branch of the Royal Mint, London.

Since it opened 1965 the Mint has struck well over eleven billion circulating coins and has the capacity to produce over two million coins per day, or over six hundred million coins a year.

The Royal Australian Mint strikes coins for a number of South Pacific nations such as Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Western Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, Israel and Tokelau as well as for New Zealand.

Along with the Perth mint, run and administered by the Western Australian State Government, as a subsidiary through their Gold Corporation, the mint also manufactures medals, medallions, seals and tokens for private and public sectors and sporting and tourism groups, both nationally and internationally. Some examples of these include:

The Order of Australia
Third Pacific Conference Games Medallions
Sydney Monorail token and
Conrad Jupiter’s Casino tokens.

The Mint also produces a range of collector coins (numismatic coins) which are sold through an extensive mail order operation, e-commerce, a network of domestic and international coin dealers, selected Australia Post outlets and the Mint Shop at the mint. These coins are really for collectors and not for investment, the premium on such coins being very high in relation to the precious metal value contained within the coins.

The Mint is closed on Christmas Day and Good Friday but open every other day of the year to the public. Visiting hours are Monday to Friday - 9am to 4pm and Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays - 10am to 4pm and admission is free.

The CEO of the Mint is Janine Murphy and the Deputy CEO Graham Smith.

The Mint is located at Deakin ACT 2600 AUSTRALIA.

Royal Australian Mint Limited Mintage Sales Policy
The Royal Australian Mint has a limited mintage sales policy that applies to any numismatic product sold with a set mintage of or less than 2000.

The policy states basically that the distribution of numismatic products is determined on the release date of the numismatic product, based on when orders are received by the Royal Australian Mint.

Each of the Royal Australian Mint’s sales channels (fax, mail, online, phone, mint shop) will have an allocation commensurate with the percentage of total sales for that channel.

Sales are restricted to one numismatic product per customer. That could be one coin or one set of coins or other products. This prevents any one person buying up all the issue struck for that coin or coin set and reselling them at a vast profit. The policy is applied to all Royal Australian Mint customers and dealers.

The Royal Australian Mint reserves the right to cancel any order in breach of this policy.

Royal Australian Mint Policy on Coin Themes: Uncirculating Coins
Uncirculating coins (also referred to as numismatic or collector coins) are coins intended for coin collectors and the souvenir/gift market rather than for the payment of goods or services.

By law, Uncirculating coins are legal tender in Australia and are redeemable at their face value at the Reserve Bank of Australia (other Australian banks and deposit taking institutions may redeem the coins but are not under a legal obligation to do this) although due to the price and value of the precious metal it is extremely unlikely that anyone would do so.

Uncirculating coins are sold at a premium to their face value to cover the cost of materials, production, distribution and sale of the coins and to provide the Mints with a profit on their activities. This premium can sometimes be many times the face value of the coin and at least twice the value of the precious metal contained therein.

As legal tender, uncirculating coins must bear on the obverse the approved effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

There are two bodies that have the authority to produce uncirculating coins in Australia:

Perth Mint: The Perth Mint is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gold Corporation which is a statutory corporation established by the Gold Corporation Act 1987 (WA). Gold Corporation is owned by the Western Australian Government. The Perth Mint produces uncirculating coins under an agreement with the Australian Government.

Royal Australian Mint: The Royal Australian Mint is an Australian Government agency prescribed under the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (Cth). The Royal Australian Mint produces both circulating and uncirculating coins. It is the only Mint that has the authority to produce uncirculated varieties of Australia’s circulating coins in base or precious metals.

Royal Australian Mint Products
The Australian Mint produces a number of gold and silver coins and coin sets as well as a number of other products related to and even not related to coin collecting. The Royal Australian Mint Shop has a complete list of these gold and silver products, including medallions, pendants, to many to be listed here.

An example coin is the 2007 $10 Gold Proof Coin - Lunar Series Year of the Pig. One tenth of one ounce and priced at 175 AUD or 159.09 overseas price. Other coins are similarly priced compared to the quantity of gold or silver contained therein.

Royal Australian Mint Payment Options
The Australian Mint accepts online credit card payments for their advertised and promoted products. At the Mint shop of course cash is accepted as well as credit, debit and access cards.

Their shopping cart is secure and you would be advised to ensure that the shipping address matches the address on t your credit card account.

For orders in Australia there is a Goods & Services Tax (GST) of 10 percent. For orders overseas there is no Tax.

Royal Australian Mint Returns and Refunds
The mint does not have a buyback program so does not buy back gold or silver coins. You would need to seek out a gold or silver dealer for that. The Australian mint simply sells the coins it manufactures.

If you receive a faulty coin then, under the statutory regulations you may return it for a refund or replacement. If you ever need to do this, although it would be most unlikely and there may even be some possible faint value in having an incorrectly struck coin gold coin, then you can return the article complete with all paper work for a refund or replacement.

Royal Australian Mint Shipping
Shipping is a lot slower than from gold dealers. Usually within 4-6 weeks from the time they receive your order and funds. If, after 6 weeks, you have not received your gold or silver then you should notify the mint giving the following information so they can chase your order down and either expedite it or replace it.

Your name
Address (including post code)
Daytime phone number
Customer number
Date you placed the order (approximate date if exact is not available)
Date your credit card/cheque account was deducted
A short statement confirming that you have not received the parcel
Your signature

The Mint suggests you use the 'Registered Delivery' option to ensure that Australia Post does not deliver the parcel without obtaining a signature from someone in your household, and if the parcel is lost in transit to your house it can then most likely be traced.

The Last Word on the Royal Australian Mint
Buying gold and silver coins from the Australian Mint has the security that you are buying genuine and real gold and silver coins. Of course you will pay top dollar so this is really for collectors only and not for gold or silver investors who’s time and money would be better spend seeking out gold and silver bullion, preferably in large quantities to reduce the premium. In addition one can invest in gold and silver by owning it and not having the hassle of storage and transport issues, by going to goldmoney.com and opening an account there.

If you have bought any gold coins, silver coins, gold bullion or silver bullion from the www.ramint.gov.au, please feel free to leave feedback on the quality of service and products you found, including any www.ramint.gov.au online complaints and special attention or service given by www.ramint.gov.au.