1 Ton Gold Coin

Several years ago I was lucky enough to visit the Perth Mint and witness the largest (and most expensive) gold coin in the world. Weighing in at an incredible 1 ton and made of gold that is 99.99% pure, the ‘Australian Kangaroo’ is a testament to the Mint’s ambition and skill.

The coin has a diameter of 80cm and a depth of 12cm. It is honestly amazing to think that something so small can absolutely crush the scales, as when I saw the coin, fathoming it’s weight is near impossible.

While it would appear that making a coin of this size is quite simple, as all you have to do is just scale up the mold from previous coins, making massive coins is an artform in itself. The existing furnaces at the mint were sufficient to melt the one ton of gold, and once the gold was molten, it was poured into a graphite mold. From here, the complexity of the operation increased. The entire coin had to be hand finished, ensuring the finer details were perfect. The kangaroo and Queen's image also had to be hand finished, which was by far the most delicate part of the process. Although the mold had given a rough outline of these two images, a lot of work was still necessary to complete it. It was a masterpiece, and completely blew any other supermassive coin out of the water.

On another note, the coin is worth tens of millions of dollars currently and is legal tender in Australia. Seriously, you could take the coin to a store and buy something with it (if they would accept it is another story). However, I doubt the kangaroo will be skipping out of the Perth Mint anytime soon.

Thanks for reading!