The Perth Mint has released the 2012 Year of the Dragon Gold and Silver Bullion Coins. This release continues the Australian Lunar Series II, which features the twelve animals of China’s ancient lunar calendar. The bullion coins are struck in .999 silver or .9999 gold and available in a wide array of sizes.
People born within the date range of January 13, 2012 to February 9, 2013 are said to be born in the Year of the Dragon. Previous date ranges have included the years 1904, 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 196, 1976, 1988, and 2000. Those born under the influence of this sign are said to be confident, enterprising, independent, self-assured, brave, and passionate.
The reverse design of the Perth Mint’s 2012 Year of the Dragon Gold Coins depicts a dragon with a representation of a pearl. The Chinese character for Dragon and “Year of the Dragon” also appear. On the obverse is the Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, the date “2012”, and denomination for the coin.
The gold coins are struck in .9999 purity and available in sizes ranging from 10 kilo to 1/20 ounce. A mintage limit of 100 is imposed for the 10 kilo coins, and 30,000 for the 1 ounce coins. The other available sizes have unlimited mintages until the close of production at the end of 2012. All coins have a release date of September 1, 2011, except for the 10 kilo coin, which will be available November 14, 2011 on a made to order basis.
Lunar Gold Bullion Coin Series II – 2012 Year of the Dragon
| Size | Gold Content | Denom | Weight | Diameter | Thickness | Max Mintage |
| 10 kilo | 321.507 oz | 30,000 AUD | 10,001 g | 180.6 mm | 25 mm | 100 |
| 1 kilo | 32.151 oz | 3,000 AUD | 1,000.1 g | 100.6 mm | 9 mm | N/A |
| 10 oz | 10 oz | 1,000 AUD | 311.067 g | 75.6 mm | 6 mm | N/A |
| 2 oz | 2 oz | 200 AUD | 62.215 g | 41.1 mm | 3.9 mm | N/A |
| 1 oz | 1 oz | 100 AUD | 31.112 g | 39.34 mm | 2.5 mm | 30,000 |
| 1/2 oz | 0.5 oz | 50 AUD | 15.554 g | 30.6 mm | 2.5 mm | N/A |
| 1/4 oz | 0.25 oz | 25 AUD | 7.777 g | 22.6 mm | 2.2 mm | N/A |
| 1/10 oz | 0.1 oz | 15 AUD | 3.111 g | 18.6 mm | 2 mm | N/A |
| 1/20 oz | 0.05 oz | 5 AUD | 1.556 g | 14.6 mm | 1.4 mm | N/A |
The 2012 Year of the Dragon Silver Bullion Coins feature an alternate design of a dragon with a representation of a pearl. The Chinese character for dragon and inscription “Year of the Dragon” also appear. The obverse carries the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II with the “2012” date and the monetary denomination.
Each silver coin is struck in .999 purity and available in sizes ranging from 10 kilo to 1/2 ounce. A mintage limit of 500 pieces applies to the 10 kilo coins and 300,000 to the 1 ounce coins. The other sizes have an unlimited mintage until the close of production at the end of 2012. The release date for each coin is September 1, 2011, except for the 10 kilo size, which will be available November 14, 2011.
Lunar Silver Bullion Series II – 2012 Year of the Dragon
| Size | Silver Content | Denom | Weight | Diameter | Thickness | Max Mintage |
| 10 kilo | 321.510 oz | 300 AUD | 10,010 g | 221 mm | 33 mm | 500 |
| 1 kilo | 32.151 oz | 30 AUD | 1,001.002 g | 100.6 mm | 14.6 mm | N/A |
| 10 oz | 10 oz | 10 AUD | 311.347 g | 85.6 mm | 6.6 mm | N/A |
| 5 oz | 5 oz | 8 AUD | 155.673 g | 65.6 mm | 5.8 mm | N/A |
| 2 oz | 2 oz | 2 AUD | 62.270 g | 55.6 mm | 3.6 mm | N/A |
| 1 oz | 1 oz | 1 AUD | 31.135 g | 45.6 mm | 2.6 mm | 300,000 |
| 1/2 oz | 0.5 oz | 0.50 AUD | 15.591 g | 36.6 mm | 2.3 mm | N/A |
The Perth Mint and most retailers worldwide are out of almost every denomination of the gold and silver coins right now. Do you think more coins will be made later since all but the ounce coins have no limit?
I’m glad you posted on this Michael. I’ve been thinking of writing a follow-up. There is a rumor floating around that either the Chinese government or a well-connected buyer in China gobbled all these coins up in one go. The Perth Mint released some proofs of these as well on their website – those seem to have disappeared in about a day: http://www.perthmint.com.au/catalogue/australian-lunar-series-ii-2012-year-of-the-dragon-silver-proof-coin-issue.aspx .
Louis, I don’t know as you will have another chance to pick these up until someone sells them. I don’t think they mint multiple groupings of them – I’m pretty sure they do it once and that’s it. However, Perth usually releases colorized versions of these coins. Those don’t seem to have hit the market yet, so you may still have a chance to pick them up as long as you are ready to grab them immediately when they appear (for example, when I first started buying coins, I was lucky enough to acquire a 1/4th ounce and 1/10th ounce 2005 gold rooster). Unfortunately, I do not know of a Perth version of Mint News Blog where I can check things like mintage figures and release dates. They have a blog on their website, but it is not very good compared to MNB or CoinUpdate, in my opinion. http://blog.perthmint.com.au/
It does appear the numismatic, colorized one ounce versions will be coming on October 4th: http://www.perthmint.com.au/forthcoming-releases.aspx. Mintages are probably going to be very low – I understand there were only 5000 1 oz proofs made and 1000 3 coin sets with a one ounce made. If anyone’s interested, I did a write-up on my blog.
With very limited allotments of the one ounce silver 2012 Dragon given to Perth Mint authorized U.S, distributors, it appears the same old games are being played as was the case with the original release of the 2010 ATB 5 ounce bullion coins. One dealer admits already selling out to those on their waiting list without putting them up for sale on their website.
While on the other hand, another well known U.S. wholesale/retail distributor claims to either not have them in stock yet or doesn’t know how to price them. Many customers are checking the dealer’s web page several times per day to see if they will suddenly appear while other customers of the same retailer are awaiting word that they’ve been selected from the waiting list.
Seems Perth grossly underestimated demand or is playing it up for PR purposes. The 2000 Perth Dragon had the highest mintage by far of any of the other Series I Lunar coins yet they still command the highest resale on the secondary market.
Eventually, there should be more of the bullion versions available. On 9/5 the Perth Mint announced a temporary suspension of orders due to unprecedented levels of demand. This might be why bullion/coin dealers don’t have them in stock right now. They will eventually re-start production after existing orders are filled and product lines re-stocked. Except for the sizes with stated maximum mintages, the bullion coins can be struck throughout 2012.
On the other hand the numismatic versions have some incredibly low mintage limits and appear to be selling out rapidly. I will have another post with the information I have on the various numismatic versions- hopefully today.
Have any of you checked out the Canadian dragons? The ounce coin is limited to about 49,000 and costs just under $100, but the design does not seem as nice as the Perth Mint one.
Normally I don’t go for colorized coins, but these could be very nice colorized esp. with a low mintage.
Has anyone here got any idea of how many 1kg gold Year of the Dragons have been minted? I cannot find any info on the Perth Mint site as to the price/availability/minting/. Is someone able to offer some direction?
Hi there
I got a 5oz silver coloured coin of the australian lunar coin series 2012 year of the dragon here. It looks spectacular. I was wondering what the value would be of this coin with a standard from the perth mint, a certificate and a nice box? Not really into selling it, but just curious.
A little late answer to you bluecollargoldguy, but as far as the 2000 1 kg gold dragon versions are concerned, per the Perth Mint website updated 22 Nov 2012, there were 227 of them as declared mintage. In 2012, there was a declared mintage of 241. You can be pretty sure they are proofs. I do not know what Krause says what the mintages are, or if they say at all. my 2007 Krause does not even mention what the 1 oz. gold mintages are, either bullion or proof. Now, hold onto your hats… in 2012, the number of declared mintage per perth of the dragon 10kg gold dragons as 3. That must be some coin!