Quokka Silver

The Perth Mint Silver Quokka

The Quokka is an annual 1 oz silver bullion coin from the Perth Mint, first issued in 2020 and struck from .9999 fine silver, the same purity as Australia's flagship Kangaroo. It is Australian legal tender with a face value of AUD $1 and carries a hard mintage cap of 30,000 coins per year, which puts it in a different category from mainstream bullion: priced close to metal, but scarce enough to attract collectors.

The subject is the quokka, the small Western Australian wallaby often called "the world's happiest animal" for the permanent smile its facial structure suggests. The animal became a global social media phenomenon after celebrity selfies on Rottnest Island, its primary habitat, and the Perth Mint unveiled the coin there on 28 August 2020. The reverse design changes every year, so the series behaves like the mint's other rotating-design annual coins rather than a fixed type.

The practical pitch is straightforward. Buyers who want the cheapest route into silver coins will find unlimited-mintage bullion easier and cheaper to source. Buyers who want a capped-mintage Perth Mint coin with sovereign backing, full four-nines purity, and a design series young enough to collect from its first year choose the Quokka. Each coin ships in a protective acrylic capsule, with multiples of 20 packed in sealed rolls, and carries the Perth Mint's standard micro-laser engraved security letter on the reverse.

Silver Quokka Dimensions, Mintage and Security Features

The bullion Quokka comes in a single denomination: a 1 oz silver coin struck in .9999 fine silver, the same purity as the Perth Mint's flagship silver Kangaroo. It is Australian legal tender under the Australian Currency Act 1965 with a face value of AUD $1.00. Perth Mint also produces colourised proof versions with their own mintages, but those are separate from the bullion issue covered here.

Note the tolerance conventions in those figures: the weight is a guaranteed minimum, so every coin contains at least 31.107 g of silver, and the diameter and thickness are stated maximums. The 30,000 annual mintage cap is the structural feature that separates the Quokka from mainstream bullion. The Kangaroo has no fixed mintage cap, which gives it wider availability and lower premiums; the capped Quokka sits in the semi-numismatic category, priced as bullion but with collectible scarcity built in.

For authentication, each reverse carries a micro-laser engraved letter detectable only under magnification, a feature standard across Perth Mint bullion coins, alongside the Perth Mint "P" mintmark. The 2024 issue uses a "P125" mintmark for the mint's 125th anniversary. Each coin ships in a protective acrylic capsule, with multiples of 20 supplied in sealed rolls.

Quokka Tax Treatment by Country

The Quokka is Australian legal tender under the Currency Act 1965, but legal tender status only changes the tax picture in its home market. As silver, it faces the usual sales tax divide between Australia and Europe.

• Australia: GST-free as investment-grade silver bullion (silver of 99.9% purity or better in a form traded on commodity markets). The .9999 bullion Quokka qualifies; numismatic collector versions can attract 10% GST.
• United Kingdom: Subject to 20% VAT on new coins. Australian legal tender status does not affect UK treatment, and as a non-UK coin it is not CGT-exempt; gains above the £3,000 annual allowance are taxable. Some dealers offer pre-owned coins under the margin scheme, where VAT applies only to the dealer's margin.
• European Union: Full local VAT rates on silver (17% to 27% depending on member state). Germany and the Netherlands operate margin schemes for pre-owned silver coins.
• United States: No federal sales tax; state treatment varies. At .9999 fineness the coin exceeds the 99.9% silver purity requirement for precious metals IRAs.
• Canada: Exempt from GST/HST as a foreign silver coin meeting the 99.9% federal purity requirement.
• New Zealand: GST-exempt as fine silver bullion at 99.9% purity or better.
• Singapore and Hong Kong: 0% GST under Singapore's Investment Precious Metals scheme; Hong Kong has no sales tax on bullion.

A Selfie Icon in Silver, Since 2020

The Perth Mint launched the Quokka in 2020 with a ceremony on Rottnest Island, Western Australia, the deliberate choice of venue tying the coin to the animal's most famous habitat. The island's Dutch name began as Rattennest (rat's nest), bestowed by explorers who mistook the resident quokkas for large rats. The species (Setonix brachyurus) is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, with fragmented mainland populations and a stable Rottnest population of roughly 10,000 to 12,000 animals; viral selfies with the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Margot Robbie, and Roger Federer made it internationally famous.

Every year brings a completely new reverse. The 2020 inaugural design by Natasha Muhl showed a quokka standing on its hind legs eating leaves, with a beach and lighthouse behind. The 2021 coin, designed by Jody Clark, depicted an adult quokka with its joey among flora, butterflies, and a bobtail lizard. Designs continued rotating through 2022 and 2023, and 2024 brought a "happy family" of quokkas in a beachside setting.

The obverse has tracked the change of monarch. Coins from 2020 carry Jody Clark's effigy of Queen Elizabeth II; the 2024 issue switched to Dan Thorne's effigy of King Charles III and added the special "P125" mintmark marking the Perth Mint's 125th anniversary. With its first issue only in 2020, the Quokka is one of the youngest series in the mint's bullion stable, which means a complete date run is still within easy reach for collectors who start now.

Quokka vs Kangaroo, Kookaburra, and Koala

The Perth Mint's own catalogue supplies the Quokka's main rivals. The Kangaroo is the flagship: same .9999 purity, but no fixed mintage cap, wider dealer availability, and lower premiums. As a pure weight play the 1 oz silver Kangaroo wins on cost and liquidity. The Quokka's 30,000 cap is the counterargument: scarcity that unlimited bullion cannot offer, at pricing still anchored to the metal.

Within the mint's limited-mintage annual series, the Kookaburra (issued since 1990) has the longest history and the deepest collector following, while the Koala (since 2007) occupies similar premium-tier positioning to the Quokka. The Brumby runs a slightly tighter cap at 25,000 coins. The Quokka, first struck in 2020, is the newest of the group and leans hardest on its subject's popular appeal; none of the others can claim a mascot with the quokka's social media fame.

The honest trade-off for buyers: the secondary market for the Quokka is less liquid than mainstream bullion such as the Kangaroo or the Maple Leaf, so exit pricing depends more on finding collector demand than on the silver price alone. The capped mintage can support premiums above melt, but that is a possibility rather than a guarantee. Buyers wanting one capped-mintage Perth Mint series to follow annually choose between the Kookaburra's long pedigree and the Quokka's modern profile; buyers stacking ounces are better served by the uncapped coins.