After three months that I wasn’t publishing article here in my website because I had been focused on something else that interests me, now I am returning again in blogging. I missed writing my travel memories. Now I will continue from where I left off. I started my introductions through some photos on my travel in Perth, still part of my Western Australia adventure and the last travels that I had in Australia before my 4-years visa expired. I really enjoyed my time exploring the huge continent country down under.
After resting for half an hour in my hotel, I decided to walk around the city and looked for a nearby place that I can explore in the afternoon. I decided to find the Perth Mint which few minutes walk from my accommodation. I went inside the museum and I inquired at the desk if there was still available guided walking tour at that time. The desk officer confirmed there still one before they close for the day. It was a relief for me and I never hesitated to join the tour. The tour at that time cost me $20 AUD.
The Perth Mint
Since I still have enough time before the tour starts, I took a couple of photos outside the grand heritage building which gave me a time to appreciate the structure of the building and to notice the sculpture in front of it. I walked towards it and looked closely until I able to read some of the text scripts engrave on its bottom and learned that it is called “The Strike” and made by Greg James, a Western Australian sculptor. The sculpture depicts the moment where two prospectors named William Ford and Arthur Bayley strike the gold in 1892, a discovery of the gold led to secure the future of colony in Western Australia.
“The Strike”
After spending few minutes outside, I returned to the building and waited until the mint tour commenced. I knew it was a museum but I felt excited because I knew that I will discover something inside the historical mint.
Our tour guide gathered everyone that joins the tour and in few minutes, walking guided tour started. The moment we entered the mint, we were greeted by the world’s largest gold bullion coin which called as the “Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin” where one side of the coin is the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. And by just looking at the largest bullion gold coin that looks so grand on the way they displayed it, I knew for myself that I saw the most important feature of the mint. I took a lot of photos because of my fascination with the gold bullion coin that is 99.99% pure gold, the biggest, the heaviest and the most valuable gold bullion coin in the world with estimated value of AUD 50 million.
Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin
Next, we walked inside the 1899 melting house we watched the live traditional way of pouring gold. The process was explained from the beginning where the gold was mined, then pure gold was heated and molten with extreme high temperatures. After the process, the result end was a gold bar and will be added to their gold bar collection with a price tag which can be available in public for sale of its worth value.
Pouring Gold
The Perth Mint exhibits the history of gold in Western Australia and important facts that revolves around the gold. Below are some information that I learned while exploring the mint.
The first gold sovereign was minted in 1489 to honor Henry VII, the first Tudor king and universally accepted as “The Chief Coin in the World”. The Perth Mint itself produced gold sovereigns from 1899 to 1931 when the demand on it became so high within the British Empire.
Gold Sovereigns – “Chief Coins of the World”
In the said gold sovereigns, the British Empire queens and kings has been portrayed on coinage such as Queen Victoria, Kind Edward II, King George V and Queen Elizabeth II.
A vintage machine called Sovereign Sorting Machine was displayed in the mint where its main function is to determine if the sovereign blank has correct weight. If it checked that it’s too heavy or too light, it will be rejected to be melted again before it will mint as coin.
Sovereign Sorting Machine
Another vintage display found inside The Perth Mint is Assay Scales made by L. Oertling of London, Great Britain’s largest manufacturer of precision balances.
Assay Scales
The mint also exhibits the historical information of the Australian Currency. Before, Australia’s Federation, it used a mixed of British silver and copper coins until the law was passed which gave control over the issue of Australian currency.
Australian Currency and its Coins History
Bullion Coins and Bars
Lunar Bullion Coins
HME Minting Machine
Gold Bars behind bars
Gold Bars
While exploring the mint museum, I found some profound learning about gold, below are some of the captured information that I had about Gold.
Gold is?
One of amazing thing to learn about gold is that it can found in different forms, such as dust or nuggets. People may discover gold through a single bit of piece or the other way around which is a much larger form of it. Either way, both still found as gold.
Nowadays, the gold are mined in microscopic gold dust, cannot be seen by naked eye until the gold-bearing ore has been processed. The one the I captured below is said to be mined from 70 tonnes of ore to have this phial display of gold dust. Wow!!!
Gold Dust
Some gold are found in quartz and other minerals such as ironstone, slate, amethyst, limonite, serpentine, calcite and so on.
Golds in different minerals
The most obvious form that gold can be found is in nugget form such as free flakes, grains, or larger nuggets. These were formed by particles of gold were eroded from rocks. Because the gold is dense, these particles became naturally concentrated in ancient streams and riverbeds were collected and were “welded” by water action to form nuggets. – The Perth Mint
Gold in Nuggets
Visiting The Perth Mint to visit is a worth one to try. The tour made me realized that Australia currently holds the biggest gold bullion in the world and it is also fascinating to see a real gold bars that worth million dollars.
Until then.
Notes:
1. Plan to visit The Perth Mint ? Please check latest information here :
2. Transportation – Perth CAT
3. Directions to The Perth Mint :
From Hotels at City Centre : Short walk to 310 Hay St
Free Bus (Red CAT) : Nearby Bus Station
– Along Hay Street
Hay St Perth Mint Red Cat 6
Hay St Before Hill St
– Along Goderich Street
Goderich St Mercedes College Red Cat 27
Goderich St Bennett Street Red Cat 28
