2019-02-07 Thu

The Royal Australian Mint is going to introduce its "Echoes of Australian Fauna" series, dedicated to indigenous animal species from Australia. All three fine silver Proof coins from the series would be majorly plated with black nickel, and selective gold plating would be used to highlight the main design elements. The first coin from the series would be officially launched at the 2019 Berlin World Money Fair.

All coins have a face value of $5 and the reverse side of each coin would feature a different animal - the extinct Tasmanian tiger, the extinct Lesser Bilby and the night parrot. The obverse side features the common effigy of Queen Elizabeth II.

The last known Tasmanian Tiger was called Benjamin and it died on 7th September 1936 at Hobart Zoo. The Lesser Bilby lived in Australia’s driest deserts and was discovered in 1887. However, it was rarely spotted or recorded since its discovery and was finally declared extinct in the 1950s.

The Night Parrot is a nocturnal bird which is only found in Australia. It’s small in size and lives on the ground. Experts believed that they were extinct as none were spotted since more than 100 years. However, this assumption was wrong as some were spotted very recently.

Every coin variety has a mintage limit of 5,000 and can be purchased for $140.00 (AUD) each. Sale of the Tasmanian Tiger coin will begin from 4th March, that of the Lesser Bilby coin will begin from 6th May and that of the Night Parrot coin will begin from 1st July.

Image Courtesy: The Royal Australian Mint