Australian Platypus Silver

Perth Mint's Piedfort Platypus from the Next Generation Series

The Australian Platypus is the 2021 release in Perth Mint's Next Generation series, a programme that has featured a different Australian native mother-and-baby animal pair each year since 2018. The silver version is struck in piedfort format, meaning it carries two troy ounces of .9999 fine silver in a coin the same diameter as a standard one-ounce piece. The extra metal goes into thickness rather than width, producing a noticeably chunkier coin at 6.02mm thick compared to the typical 3mm of a 1oz Silver Maple Leaf.

The reverse, designed by Monique Reeves, depicts a mother platypus swimming underwater alongside her newborn, with bubbles rising around the pair as they search for food along the riverbed. Perth Mint's micro-laser engraving technology is present on the reverse, with tiny text inscriptions visible only under magnification. Radial micro-engraved lines fill the background fields on both sides of the coin, serving as both an aesthetic detail and an anti-counterfeiting measure.

The platypus is one of only five surviving monotreme species on Earth. These egg-laying mammals are found exclusively in eastern Australia and Tasmania, and the males carry a venomous spur on their hind legs. The animal's uniqueness makes it a natural subject for Perth Mint's wildlife bullion programme, which has also featured the Silver Kookaburra and Silver Koala in separate long-running series.

The Next Generation series itself is distinctive among world bullion programmes. No other major mint has built an entire coin series around parental bonds in the animal kingdom. Previous releases include the Koala (2018), Crocodile (2019), Kookaburra (2020), and subsequent issues covering the Dingo (2022), Kangaroo (2023), and Emu (2024). The piedfort format originated in medieval France, where double-thickness coins were struck as presentation pieces for royalty. Perth Mint revived the concept for modern bullion, giving the Next Generation coins a tactile quality that standard-thickness competitors lack.

Australian Platypus Silver Specifications

The coin also exists in platinum (1 oz, .9995 fine, $100 AUD face value) and gold (1/4 oz, .9999 fine). A 10 oz silver version was produced with a mintage of just 2,500 pieces, making it considerably scarcer and more sought-after on the secondary market. All versions carry the Perth Mint "P" mintmark on the reverse and are legal tender of Australia under the Australian Currency Act.

Tax Treatment for the Silver Australian Platypus

As Australian legal tender struck by the government-owned Perth Mint, the silver Platypus qualifies for investment bullion tax treatment in most jurisdictions. The .9999 purity comfortably exceeds the thresholds required for tax-advantaged status in countries that set minimum fineness requirements.

• Australia: GST-free. Investment-grade precious metals from Perth Mint (a Western Australian government-owned entity) are exempt from the 10% Goods and Services Tax. The 99.9% purity threshold for silver GST exemption is easily cleared at .9999 fine.
• United States: No federal sales tax applies. State-level treatment varies, with most states exempting precious metals bullion. The .9999 silver purity meets IRS Section 408(m) requirements for inclusion in a precious metals IRA through an approved custodian.
• United Kingdom: Silver bullion is subject to 20% VAT regardless of origin or legal tender status. The Platypus is not UK legal tender, so it does not qualify for the CGT exemption that applies to Silver Britannias. Gold versions of the coin qualify for VAT exemption as investment gold.
• Canada: GST/HST-exempt as investment-grade silver bullion meeting the 99.9% minimum purity requirement under the Excise Tax Act.
• New Zealand: GST-exempt as fine silver bullion at .9999 purity (exceeding the 99.9% threshold). No capital gains tax applies in New Zealand.
• Singapore: GST-exempt under the Investment Precious Metals (IPM) scheme. Silver coins must meet 99.9% purity and be or have been legal tender to qualify. The Platypus satisfies both conditions.
• Hong Kong: No sales tax, VAT, or import duty applies to precious metals.

Platypus vs Other Perth Mint Silver and Competing Sovereign Coins

The Australian Platypus occupies a specific position in the silver bullion market: a limited-mintage, non-standard-weight coin from a major sovereign mint. Its closest competitors come from within Perth Mint's own catalogue and from other mints producing annual wildlife silver.

Perth Mint's established annual series, the Kookaburra (since 1990) and Koala (since 2007), are standard one-ounce coins with much longer track records and larger collector bases. The Kookaburra in particular has three decades of annual designs, creating a deep secondary market. The Next Generation Platypus, by contrast, is a single-year design within a newer series. The piedfort format gives it a physical distinctiveness that standard-thickness coins cannot match, but it trades less frequently on the secondary market.

Against the 1oz Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, the Platypus shares .9999 purity but differs in almost every other respect. The Maple Leaf is a fixed-design, high-mintage bullion coin optimised for liquidity and tight premiums. The Platypus is a limited-edition, annually-changing design with collector appeal built in. Buyers prioritising low cost per ounce and easy resale will prefer the Maple Leaf. Buyers who value design variety, the piedfort format, and moderate scarcity (75,000 mintage) will find the Platypus more appealing.

The Austrian Silver Philharmonic matches the Platypus on purity (.9999 for silver Philharmonics since 2008) and typically carries lower premiums due to higher mintages. Its fixed design lacks the annual variety and thematic interest of the Next Generation programme, but the Philharmonic's consistent availability makes it a more straightforward stacking coin.

The 75,000 mintage sits in a middle ground: sufficient for bullion-market liquidity but constrained enough to support modest secondary market premiums once a year's allocation sells out. This is notably lower than the unlimited or 300,000+ mintages typical of Perth Mint's flagship programmes, though higher than truly collectible limited editions.