Article: The Queen Elizabeth II 100th Anniversary Three-Coin Set from The Perth Mint
The Queen Elizabeth II 100th Anniversary Three-Coin Set from The Perth Mint
What a beautiful set. We are so grateful to have been able to access this.
Queen Elizabeth II was born on 21 April 1926. She became queen at 25 and reigned for 70 years. This year marks her centenary, and The Perth Mint has issued a three-coin set for it.
Three coins, each 1oz of 99.99% pure silver, proof finish. They share an inscription — 'H.M. QUEEN ELIZABETH II 100th ANNIVERSARY' — but the designs go in different directions, and that's where the set earns its price.
The first carries five historic effigies of the Queen from across her reign, placed against golden wattle, alongside St Edward's Crown, the Sovereign's Orb, the Tudor rose and the Sovereign's Sceptre. If you've handled Australian coins for any length of time, seeing those five portraits together — from the young effigy of the 1950s through to the later renditions — stops you for a moment.
The second is gilded. It references the commemorative florin struck for her 1954 visit to Australia, the first time a reigning monarch had been here. The lion and kangaroo from that original design appear again, picked out in 24-carat gold against the silver field. Collectors of Australian commemoratives will know the 1954 florin well. This coin is a direct conversation with it.
The third is coloured, and the most personal of the three. It shows the Queen in the wattle dress she wore during the 1954 tour, with a stylised version of the wattle brooch she received during the visit in the background. Less formal than the other two. More specifically Australian.
Mintage is 2,000. Designed by Natasha Muhl and Dan Thorne, presented in a Perth Mint case. $725 for the set.
That's not a small number. But three distinct treatments of the same subject, each with a real design rationale, at a mintage this tight, from The Perth Mint — it's a serious set for a serious collector.