Australia's Coat of Arms Silver

Royal Australian Mint's State Coat of Arms Bullion Programme

Australia's Coat of Arms is an annual bullion coin series from the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra, launched in 2021. Each year's release takes the coat of arms of a different Australian state or Commonwealth territory and reimagines its heraldic elements as naturalistic wildlife and botanical compositions. The result is a bullion coin that looks nothing like a conventional coat of arms and nothing like a typical wildlife coin.

The silver version contains one troy ounce of .9999 fine silver with a $1 AUD face value, while the gold version carries one troy ounce of .9999 fine gold at $100 AUD. The series departs from standard bullion convention in a significant way: both faces of each coin carry thematic design art rather than reserving one side for a straightforward monarch effigy. The Queen or King portrait is more subtly integrated into the composition, making each coin a cohesive artwork across both sides.

The inaugural 2021 release drew from the Commonwealth of Australia's coat of arms, featuring a mother kangaroo with joey and the seven-pointed Commonwealth Star surrounded by state floral emblems. The obverse depicted an emu hovering over unhatched eggs against a background of golden wattle. Subsequent releases have covered New South Wales (2022) and Queensland (2023), with the latter incorporating a brolga, cow, ram, wheat, and sugarcane from the 1977 Queensland Coat of Arms.

With up to nine possible releases (one Commonwealth plus six states and two territories), the series has the potential to become one of Australia's longest-running thematic bullion programmes. Aaron Baggio designed the inaugural coin, and the naturalistic treatment of traditionally static heraldic subjects gives the series a distinct visual identity that sets it apart from both Perth Mint's wildlife coins and the Royal Australian Mint's own standard kangaroo bullion.

Coat of Arms Silver and Gold Specifications

Release History

The series is expected to continue through Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, and the ACT, though the Royal Australian Mint has not confirmed the full schedule. Silver mintages have held at 50,000 per year, with the gold version at 5,000.

Tax Treatment for the Coat of Arms Silver Coins

As Australian legal tender from the Royal Australian Mint (a Commonwealth Government entity), the Coat of Arms coins receive investment bullion tax treatment in most jurisdictions. The .9999 purity for both silver and gold versions exceeds all standard thresholds.

• Australia: Gold is GST-free as investment gold at .9999 purity, comfortably above the 99.5% threshold. Silver is also GST-free, meeting the 99.9% purity requirement for silver bullion. The Royal Australian Mint's government status reinforces the investment-grade classification.
• United Kingdom: The gold version qualifies for VAT exemption as investment gold and may also qualify for CGT exemption as Commonwealth legal tender. Silver is subject to 20% VAT. Pre-owned silver versions may be available under the margin scheme from some secondary market dealers, significantly reducing the effective VAT cost.
• United States: No federal sales tax. Both metals meet IRS purity requirements for precious metals IRAs (.9999 exceeds the 99.5% gold and 99.9% silver thresholds). State sales tax treatment varies, with most bullion-friendly states providing exemptions.
• Canada: GST/HST-exempt under the Excise Tax Act for investment bullion at 99.9%+ purity.
• New Zealand: GST-exempt. Silver at .9999 exceeds the 99.9% purity threshold. No capital gains tax.
• Singapore: GST-exempt under the Investment Precious Metals scheme for qualifying legal tender coins at the required purity.
• Hong Kong: No sales tax or duties on precious metals.

Coat of Arms vs Perth Mint and Other Australian Silver

The Coat of Arms series fills a specific gap in the Australian bullion landscape. Perth Mint dominates the international market with the Silver Kangaroo, Silver Kookaburra, and Silver Koala, all of which feature single-animal subjects with annual design variations. The Coat of Arms coins are more complex, weaving multiple fauna and flora species into each composition, and they come from a different mint entirely.

Perth Mint's flagship silver bullion coins are produced with open or very high mintages (300,000+) and are stocked by virtually every major international dealer. The Coat of Arms at 50,000 silver mintage is substantially more limited, giving it a collector dimension that the mass-produced Perth Mint coins lack. The gold version at 5,000 pieces is scarcer still, though well above the ultra-limited gold mintages of some other Royal Australian Mint programmes.

The dual-design approach, with both obverse and reverse carrying artistic compositions rather than a standard monarch portrait on one side, is the series' most distinctive feature. Most sovereign bullion coins worldwide dedicate one face to the reigning monarch's effigy and the other to a national symbol or theme. The Coat of Arms coins integrate the monarch more subtly, allowing the thematic art to dominate both surfaces. This makes them visually distinct from essentially every other bullion coin on the market.

For buyers choosing between this series and Perth Mint silver, the decision comes down to priorities. Perth Mint offers wider recognition, tighter premiums, deeper secondary market liquidity, and advanced security features (micro-laser engraving). The Coat of Arms offers more ambitious design work, lower mintage with potential collectible premium, and the novelty of a RAM bullion product in a market usually dominated by Perth Mint output.