Last Chance for Sydney Cove Medallion High Relief Silver Coin

The Perth Mint has announced on their blog that this week will be the last chance to acquire the Sydney Cove Medallion High Relief Silver Proof Coin. The product will be withdrawn from sale on Friday, June 28, 2013.

I have written about the coin in a previous post and mentioned it as one of my favorites on a few occasions. Along with the Pheidippidis’ Marathon Run 2,500th Anniversary Coin, this represented one of the Perth Mint’s earlier high relief silver proof coins. In subsequent years, high relief versions of the Silver Kangaroo, Koala, Kookaburra, and Lunar series coins would be offered as the format gained in popularity.

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The Sydney Cove Medallion was created in 1789 by the resident sculptor of Josiah Wedgewood and features an allegorical scene of time’s opening scenes in the new Australian colony. The full title of the work was Hope encouraging Art and Labour under the influence of Peace to pursue the employments necessary to give security and happiness to the infant colony. The scene takes place on the shores of a bay with a ship in the background. The figure of Hope stands on a rock before an anchor and extending her hand to the figure of Peace who has a horn of plenty at her feet and olive branch in her hand. Standing beside Peace are the additional figures of Art holding an artist’s palette and Labor with a sledgehammer over his shoulder.

This original design appears as the reverse design of the one ounce high relief silver proof coin. The coin has extra thickness and is minted on concave surfaces in similar fashion to the Perth Mint’s other high relief proof offerings.

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With such a beautiful design, it might be surprising that the coin with a mintage of only 5,000 pieces has not sold out since its original release in 2010. Perhaps the reason for this is the format in which the coin was offered. It could only be purchased along with a bone china plate made by the Wedgewood company. While the bundle is appropriate given the design theme, it does add to the cost of acquiring the coin, which is currently US $167.48.

With only a few more days of availability left, the product page for the coin and plate set can be found here.

Looking ahead, the Perth Mint will begin sales for their next batch of new product releases on July 1, 2013 at 12:01 PM ET. The upcoming products include the 2013 Australian Kangaroo High Relief Silver Proof Coin, a Mini Koala 0.5 gram gold coin, the next release in the Mythical Creatures series, and more.

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Comments

  1. Zeeman says

    Michael
    is it the same price when you bought it or did they lower the price since silver has gone down.
    Thanks

  2. Michael Zielinski says

    When I bought mine in June 2012, the price was US 181.60. Now it is about $15 lower.

    Not sure if this was due to the change in exchange rate or possibly a small price reduction.

  3. Erik H says

    Nice looking coin but I have no funds for it.

    Off Topic, does anybody have information on the 2013 Somalian Elephant 4 coin proof set? I see that it has a mintage of 2000 sets but I couldn’t find out if the coins are being offered individually (making the mintage higher). Is this the only way to get proof elephant coins? I bought two NGC graded bullion coins one MS69 & one MS70 and both looked over graded to me. I’d like to get a 1 oz proof elephant but the full 4 coin set is pretty pricey! Thanks.

  4. fmtransmitter says

    Thank you for your web sites Mr. Michael Zielinski…It is a pleasure and very informative.

  5. Louis says

    @Erik- Not sure if you can get the 1 oz. elephant separately, but on e-Bay I have seen the 4-coin sets for around $250. I really like the elephant series but can only afford the Bu coins.

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