Perth Mint Issues 2022 Great Southern Land 2oz Gold Opal Coin

This beautiful coin features the great southern continent of Australia in stunning Australian opal. Since antiquity, European philosophers speculated that a large continent existed in the Southern Hemisphere to ‘balance’ those of the north. Terra Australis was the Latin term they coined to describe the posited great south land that different navigators explored in parts until Royal Navy cartographer Matthew Flinders completed the first circumnavigation of the island-continent now known as Australia in 1803. Europeans were astonished by the exotic wildlife and extraordinary natural treasures they encountered. Familiar to First Nations people for at least 60,000 years, they included the isolated land’s famous pouched marsupials, and opal, which in its most precious form flashes with a brilliant ‘play of color’.

Opal is Australia’s national gemstone. In ancient Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, it was created when a rainbow touched the earth. It is also known to Indigenous people as the ‘fire of the desert’. Today, Australia produces the overwhelming majority of the world’s precious opal, which when cut and polished can be used to create some of the world’s most alluring jewelry.

Struck by The Perth Mint from 2oz of 99.99% pure gold in Proof quality, the coin is issued as legal tender under the Australian Currency Act 1965.

The Perth Mint will release no more than 200 of the Great Southern Land 2022 2oz Gold Proof Opal Coin.

Perth Mint Australian Opal Series Design

The coin’s reverse features a central opal insert in the shape of the Australian continent. The outer rim of the coin depicts representations of iconic land animals including the Tasmanian devil, koala, emu, kangaroo, wombat, bilby, monitor lizard, echidna, snake, and frilled-neck lizard. The Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark is included in the design together with the 2020 year-date, and the coin’s weight and fineness.

The coin’s obverse bears the Jody Clark effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II within a stylized pattern and the monetary denomination.

Please note that opal color will vary.

Australian Opal Series Coin Presentation

Each coin is presented in a prestigious timber display case within an illustrated shipper and is accompanied by a numbered Certificate of Authenticity.

Designers

Designer and engraver Jody Clark joined the Royal Mint UK in 2012. His portrait of Queen Elizabeth II became the fifth official portrait in 2015 (View Designer’s Profile).

A specialist in animals, Aleysha Howarth is an artist at the Perth Mint (View Designer’s Profile).

Australian Opal Series Coin Specifications