1 oz Black Flag Silver Coin

The 1 oz Black Flag Silver Coin

The Black Flag is a pirate-themed bullion series struck by the Perth Mint and issued as legal tender of Tuvalu, the small Pacific nation that licenses its currency for bullion programmes. Each annual release since the 2019 launch features a famous pirate and their flagship, with the designs focused on the ships under full sail rather than portraits of the pirates themselves. The 1 oz silver coin contains 31.1 grams of .9999 fine silver, the highest purity standard in the market, and is capped at a mintage of 15,000 per year.

That mintage cap is the key difference from standard bullion. Mainstream sovereign coins are struck to demand in open mintages; the Black Flag's deliberate limit of 15,000 silver coins per design puts it in collector territory, with per-ounce premiums above pure bullion alternatives and stronger secondary-market appeal, particularly for the early releases. The 2019 Blackbeard and 2020 Black Bart issues have grown increasingly scarce at issue prices.

Distribution is the other quirk: the series is exclusively distributed by APMEX, the US dealer, so primary-market availability outside the United States is limited compared with other Perth Mint products. Buyers elsewhere generally rely on secondary-market dealers. The coin suits buyers who want Perth Mint quality and sovereign legal tender status with a genuine collectible angle on top; a stacker purely chasing the lowest cost per ounce of silver will do better with open-mintage 1 oz silver coins or bars.

Black Flag 1 oz Silver Specifications

The obverse carries the reigning British monarch: Queen Elizabeth II on the 2019-2022 issues, King Charles III from 2023, with the TUVALU inscription, face value, and year. The reverse shows that year's pirate ship with the pirate and ship names inscribed and the BLACK FLAG series title.

The series has expanded across formats over time: alongside the standard 1 oz silver coin there is a 1 oz gold version (mintage of just 100-200), a 5 oz silver coin (mintage 500, issued 2019-2023), and from 2022 a chemically antiqued 1 oz silver version limited to 1,500 pieces, whose aged finish suits the pirate theme. The coins carry no proprietary anti-counterfeiting technology, but Perth Mint striking quality and .9999 purity are verifiable by standard testing.

Black Flag Silver Tax Treatment by Country

The coin is legal tender of Tuvalu, not of the country where most buyers live, which shapes its tax position.

• US: the primary market. No federal sales tax, with state rules varying and most states exempting bullion. The coin is IRA eligible, since .9999 silver from a sovereign mint meets the IRS purity requirement. Long-term gains are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%.
• UK: silver carries 20% VAT, and because the coin is not UK legal tender it gets no CGT exemption, unlike a Silver Britannia. UK buyers pay tax at both ends.
• Australia: GST-free as an investment-grade legal tender silver coin, with standard CGT treatment on disposal.
• Canada: GST/HST exempt; the .9999 purity clears the federal threshold comfortably.
• New Zealand: GST-exempt at 99.9%+ purity, and no capital gains tax.
• Singapore and Hong Kong: no GST on qualifying silver in Singapore and no sales tax in Hong Kong, with no capital gains tax in either.

Six Pirates and Their Ships, 2019 to 2024

The series opened in 2019 with Queen Anne's Revenge, the captured French slave ship of Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, who terrorised the American colonies between 1716 and 1718. The 2020 issue depicted Royal Fortune, flagship of Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart), who captured over 400 vessels and ranks among the most successful pirates in history.

The 2021 release is the standout for historical interest: Ching Shih and her Red Flag Fleet of more than 1,800 junks crewed by 60,000 to 80,000 pirates, the largest pirate armada ever assembled. She is one of very few female historical figures on a bullion series, and the only pirate known to have successfully negotiated amnesty with the Chinese government, retiring to run a gambling house. The 2022 coin showed William Moody's 36-gun The Rising Sun sailing away from a burning ship, a nod to his reputation for looting and burning.

For 2023 the series featured The Fancy, the Royal Navy vessel Henry Every mutinied and seized. Every, sometimes called the King of Pirates, captured a Mughal treasure fleet worth an estimated £600,000 in 1695, triggering one of the first worldwide manhunts; he was never caught and his fate remains unknown. The 2024 issue depicted The Kingston, the sloop of John "Calico Jack" Rackham, whose crew notably included the female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. As of 2024 the series stands at six releases and appears ongoing.

Black Flag vs Kookaburra, Privateer, and Generic Pirate Rounds

Within the Perth Mint's own catalogue, the closest comparison is the mainline bullion. The 1 oz silver Kookaburra and Kangaroo offer the same mint quality with open or much larger mintages, which means better liquidity and lower premiums for pure bullion buying. The Black Flag's 15,000 cap reverses that trade: higher cost per ounce, but collector demand that open-mintage coins do not attract.

The pirate niche has precedents. The Privateer series (Elemetal, 2015-2017) was a 2 oz ultra-high-relief silver line with pirate themes that became a collector favourite, but as private mint rounds the Privateers lacked the sovereign backing and legal tender status the Black Flag carries. The East India Company has issued pirate-themed coins for Saint Helena, where Perth Mint production quality and brand recognition give the Black Flag the edge. At the bottom of the market, generic private-mint pirate rounds trade near spot and stay there; the Black Flag commands its premium through the combination of Perth Mint striking, limited mintage, and the annual collectible format.

The decision comes down to intent. As a silver position, an open-mintage sovereign coin or a bar buys more metal for the money. As a themed collectible with bullion underpinnings, the Black Flag offers low mintages, a coherent multi-year series to complete, and early issues that have already appreciated on the secondary market, with the 5 oz and gold formats scarcer still.