1 oz Australian Brumby Silver Coin

The 1 oz Australian Brumby Silver Coin

The Australian Brumby is the Perth Mint's lowest-mintage annual silver bullion coin, capped at 25,000 pieces per year since the series began in 2020. That is below the Quokka's 30,000 cap and far below the mint's mainstream bullion lines, making the Brumby the scarcest of Perth Mint's current annual series. The cap is the central reason to pick it: buyers get a sovereign 1 oz silver coin with genuine scarcity built in, where a 1 oz silver Kangaroo is struck without mintage limits.

Each coin contains one troy ounce of .9999 fine silver and is Australian legal tender under the Currency Act 1965 with a face value of AUD $1. The reverse changes completely every year, depicting brumbies, Australia's wild horses, in different landscapes: bushland in the 2020 inaugural year, a leaping brumby in the Snowy Mountains terrain for 2021, and a 2024 design by Jennifer McKenna showing a brumby galloping beneath forked lightning in an arid landscape. The 2024 issue also carries the special "P125" mintmark marking the Perth Mint's 125th anniversary.

As a 1 oz sovereign silver coin, the Brumby competes in the most liquid bullion format there is, though its premium sits above mainstream coins because of the limited mintage. Government-minted 1 oz silver coins broadly carry 15-25% premiums in 2026 market conditions, and limited annual designs like this one occupy the premium-tier end of Perth Mint's range while adding collector upside that open-mintage coins lack.

Australian Brumby Specifications and Security

Authentication follows the Perth Mint's standard approach: a micro-laser engraved letter on the reverse, detectable only under magnification, plus the mint's "P" mintmark ("P125" on the 2024 release). The .9999 fineness matches the highest purity standard used by major sovereign silver coins.

Obverse effigies track the change of monarch. Issues from 2020 through 2022 carry Jody Clark's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II; from 2023 the series transitioned to the Dan Thorne effigy of King Charles III. Each coin ships in a protective acrylic capsule, with multiples of 20 supplied in sealed rolls. A separate 2 oz silver proof high-relief collector version exists for some years, but that is a distinct product, not the bullion coin compared on this page.

Brumby Silver Coin Tax Treatment by Country

• Australia: The home market. The coin is GST-free as investment-grade silver bullion, which under Australian rules means silver of at least 99.9% purity in a form traded on commodity markets; the Brumby's .9999 fineness qualifies comfortably. Capital gains tax applies to investment bullion, with a 50% CGT discount for individuals holding longer than 12 months.
• UK: New silver coins carry 20% VAT, and some dealers may apply the margin scheme to pre-owned stock. The Brumby is Australian legal tender, not UK legal tender, so it has no CGT exemption; a 1 oz silver Britannia keeps that advantage for UK buyers.
• US: No federal sales tax; state treatment varies, with roughly 35 states exempting bullion. The .9999 purity exceeds the IRS 99.9% threshold for IRA-eligible silver. Long-term gains are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%.
• Canada: GST/HST exempt as a legal tender silver coin above the purity threshold.
• New Zealand: GST-exempt as fine silver bullion at 99.9% purity or better.
• Singapore and Hong Kong: No GST under Singapore's Investment Precious Metals scheme for qualifying coins, and no tax of any kind in Hong Kong; neither jurisdiction taxes capital gains.

Wild Horses on Silver Since 2020

Brumbies descend from horses released or escaped from European settlements in the early 1800s. By tradition the name traces to James Brumby, a soldier who released his horses into the bush when transferred from Sydney to Van Diemen's Land in 1801; their descendants became "brumbies". The Snowy Mountains brumbies entered national legend through Banjo Paterson's 1890 poem "The Man from Snowy River", which celebrates a horseman riding down a wild colt through impossible mountain country.

The animal is genuinely contentious in Australia, which gives the series an edge most bullion subjects lack. To some, brumbies symbolise the national character: hardy, independent, free. To others they are invasive feral animals damaging fragile alpine ecosystems, with the national feral horse population estimated above 400,000. In 2018 the New South Wales government passed the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act to protect brumbies in Kosciuszko National Park against scientific advice to cull them; the law was repealed in 2023 after intense debate.

The coin series launched in 2020 and has been issued every year since, with a completely new reverse scene annually across mountain, arid, bush, and alpine settings. The 2021 design also appeared as a 2 oz proof high-relief collector coin, and 2025 brought a colourised collector variant. In bullion format the series has remained silver-only.

Brumby vs Quokka, Kangaroo, and Kookaburra

Within the Perth Mint's own stable, the closest rival is the Quokka, the other limited annual 1 oz silver coin. The Quokka's 30,000 mintage is slightly higher, and its appeal leans on the animal's cute factor; the Brumby's 25,000 cap is lower, and its outback imagery and equine subject draw a different buyer. Both sit in the premium tier above the mint's open-mintage bullion.

The Kangaroo is the value comparison: unlimited mintage, lower premiums, the same .9999 silver from the same mint. A stacker maximising ounces per dollar should buy Kangaroos; the Brumby's case rests on scarcity and annual design appeal rather than cost efficiency. The Kookaburra and Koala offer a middle path, annual design changes with deeper collector markets built over decades, where the Brumby is newer (2020) and less established. The Royal Canadian Mint has produced wild-horse themed coins, but not as an annual bullion series, so the Brumby has its theme largely to itself.

Against mainstream sovereign coins generally, the trade-offs mirror any limited series. The Brumby's 40.90 mm diameter is larger than typical 38-39 mm 1 oz silver coins, its .9999 purity matches the Maple Leaf standard, and its micro-laser security feature is the same one used across Perth Mint bullion. What it gives up is liquidity depth: Eagles, Maples, and silver coins from the biggest programmes trade in higher volume, while the Brumby's resale market is thinner but supported by collectors chasing complete date runs.