After a limited launch last weekend, when the now-cancelled Brisbane Money Expo was slated to take place in the Queensland capital, the 30th-anniversary Kookaburra silver coin from Australia’s Perth Mint is now available to the collecting public.
The one-ounce silver coin was originally planned for release at the annual expo organized by the Australian Numismatic Dealers Association (ANDA) (the Aussie counterpart to the Canadian Association of Numismatic Dealers). Offered for $60 AUD – $5 off the retail price – to ANDA members beginning on May 2, this year’s Kookaburra includes a coloured privy mark featuring the Cooktown orchid (Dendrobium bigibbum), Queensland’s floral emblem.
The obverse features a small right-facing effigy of Queen Elizabeth II above a larger kookaburra.
Designed by Jennifer McKenna, the coin’s reverse depicts a representation of a kookaburra – the small kingfisher bird known for its “fiendish laughter,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica – perched on a roof at dawn. Stylized rays of light are shown in the background alongside the privy mark, the words “AUSTRALIAN KOOKABURRA 30TH ANNIVERSARY,” the mint’s “P” mintmark and the weight and purity.
Sold in a coloured ANDA-branded presentation card, the coin has a weight of 31.107 grams, a diameter of 40.90 millimetres, a thickness of 3.5 millimetres and a mintage of 2,000 pieces.