History
Establishment
During the 19th Century, three branches of the Royal
Mint of London were established in the Australian colonies to refine gold
from the gold rushes and to mint gold sovereigns and half-sovereigns for the
British Empire. The Sydney branch opened in 1855, the Melbourne branch in
1872 and the Perth branch on 20 June 1899, two years before Australia's Federation
in 1901.
In the early 1880s, before the gold rushes, the population of Western Australia
was a mere 48,000. By 1900, it was 180,000. This sudden influx of gold seekers
put a great strain on the colony's resources. At that time, there was very
little money available in Perth for which the miners could exchange the gold
they found or to pay for the goods and services needed by the fast growing
population. Before 1901, Australia still did not exist as a nation, thus the
States were operating as separate colonies.
The then Premier of Western Australia, Sir John Forrest, asked the British
Government to establish a branch of the Royal Mint in Perth to refine the
gold being produced in the goldfields and to mint it into British gold coins
to be used as currency in the colony. Forrest laid the foundation stone of
The Perth Mint in 1896.
The designer of the Mint was George Temple Poole of the Public Works Department,
an outstanding architect responsible for a number of elegant colonial buildings.
The limestone used for the building was quarried at Rottnest Island. The symmetry
and features are typical of the period and the sturdy construction necessary
for precious metal handling and security. The total cost of construction was
58,000 pounds, a considerable sum during those times, equivalent to AUD 7,250,000
nowadays.
The legal heritage of the Perth Mint goes back much further than the building
itself. Having been established as a branch of London's Royal Mint, the rights,
duties, privileges and responsibilities of the Crown as they applied to the
Royal Mint were also transmitted to The Perth Mint. Thus, a link exists between
The Perth Mint and the venerable institution of the Royal Mint on Tower Hill,
London, where the Mint has stood since the Romans first struck coins there
in 287AD.
The Early Days
In the early days of gold mining and into the 1920s, the bulk of the gold
produced in Western Australia was converted into 22-carat alloy and issued
as sovereigns and half-sovereigns for circulation and government reserves.
By the time minting of gold coinage ceased in 1931, the Perth Mint had issued
over 106 million British sovereigns and nearly 735,000 half-sovereigns. These
were not strictly Australian coins, as they were identical to those struck
by all branches of the Royal Mint throughout the Empire.
Before Australia's Federation, the silver and bronze coins in circulation
were also British, but shortly after the emergence of Australia as a Commonwealth
on 1 January 1901, plans were made for a new coinage, and the Australian Coinage
Act was proclaimed in 1909. The first Australian silver coins (florins, shillings,
sixpences and threepences) were dated 1910 and the first bronze coins (pennies
and half-pennies) were dated 1911.
The new coins were initially struck in England, Sydney, Melbourne and for
a short time, in India. In 1922, The Perth Mint made pennies for the first
time. There was a break in coin production in Perth between 1931 and 1940,
but from 1940 until 1964, pennies or half-pennies came off the presses continuously.
By 1964, 438 million pennies and 256 million half-pennies had been produced
at The Perth Mint, with a small issue of 1.3 million shillings dated 1946
also struck.
In 1964, the Mint turned its energies to stockpiling bronze coins in preparation
for Australia's changeover to decimal currency in 1966. Minting ceased in
1968 and on 1 July 1970 the Mint became a statutory authority of the Government
of Western Australia (until then The Perth Mint had been under the jurisdiction
of Britain). It remains a State institution, though the Sydney and Melbourne
mints ceased to operate long ago, largely due to the decline of gold production
in the Eastern States.
In 1973 minting resumed, with steady production of two-cent coins continued
until the end of 1983, by which time 829 million two-cent coins and 26 million
one-cent coins had been minted in Perth. Today, all of Australia's circulating
coin currency is produced at the Royal
Australian Mint in Canberra.
Rejuvenation
In 1986 the State Government formed GoldCorp Australia to manage a major
redevelopment of The Perth Mint and to market Australia's first legal tender
precious metal bullion coin program internationally: the Australian Precious
Metals Coin Program. GoldCorp Australia has since become a significant participant
in international markets for value-added precious metal investment and collectable
coin products, precious and base metal medallions, and other collectables.
By agreement with the Commonwealth Government, The Perth Mint became responsible
for manufacturing and marketing most of Australia's legal tender precious
metal coinage under the nation's Currency Act 1965. These bullion and proof
quality coins include the Australian Nugget gold coins and the Australian
Kookaburra silver coins. Their legal tender status is the key to their international
tradability because, just as in King Croesus's day, the government backing
for the coins is the guarantee of the weight and purity of the gold, platinum
and silver they contain.
On 30 June 1988 the Gold
Corporation Act 1987 was enacted creating a new entity called Gold
Corporation that was to be wholly owned by the Government of Western Australia.
Gold Corporation became the holding company of two wholly owned subsidiaries,
the Western Australian Mint (the legal entity of the Mint's refining and minting
operations) and GoldCorp Australia (the legal entity responsible for marketing),
thus formalising the merger of these two highly interrelated businesses.
The Perth Mint's refinery operation, which had been located at the original
Hay Street premises since June 1899, was moved to a new state-of-the-art facility
at Newburn, adjacent to Perth's International Airport, in April 1990.
In October 1990, the Mint's majestic wrought iron gates that had been locked
to the general public for more than 90 years, were thrown open following the
establishment of The Perth Mint Shop. Further development of the Mint's retail
and tourist business occurred in December 1993 with the opening of the Gold
Exhibition. The Perth Mint has since become a major tourist attraction, winning
multiple State and National tourism awards and hosting more than 120,000 visitors
a year. Open seven days a week, its most popular attraction is an hourly Gold
Pour, held in the original refinery Melthouse.
The Modern Era
In 1997 The Perth Mint, in partnership with the Royal Australia Mint, launched
the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program: the most significant coin collection
ever released in Australia for international distribution. The unique collection
of eight gold coins, sixteen silver coins, twenty-eight bronze 'sports' coins
and the Silver Kilo Olympic Masterpiece, were released between October 1997
and May 2000. The Silver Kilo Olympic Masterpiece was the largest Olympic
coin ever produced and the first Olympic coin to feature all the 28 sports
of an Olympic Games. The two mints also shared the honour of manufacturing
the prestigious Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Victory Medals.
In December 1998, the Mint's refining and precious metals industrial products
businesses were merged with those of Golden West (Australasia) Pty Ltd, to
form the Australian Gold Refineries Joint Venture (AGR JV). Golden West's
50% interest in the AGR JV was later sold, in August 2001, to the Australian
Gold Alliance Pty Ltd (AGA).
On 3 October 2002, the AGR JV and Johnson Matthey (Aust) Ltd merged their
respective Australasian operations to create a globally competitive precious
metal refining and fabrication business, trading as AGR
Matthey. AGR Matthey is a partnership between the Western Australian Mint
(40%), Australian Gold Alliance Pty Ltd (40%) and Johnson Matthey (Aust) Ltd
(20%).
AGR Matthey is now one of the world's largest refineries, with output for
the 2003/2004 financial year exceeding 400 tonnes. Since 1899, the Mint and
now AGR Matthey have refined over three percent of the total amount of gold
produced by mankind.
Today
More than 100 years after its opening, The Perth Mint continues to function
from its original premises and is Australia's leading precious metals refining,
minting and value-adding Group, providing high quality services and precious
metal products to domestic and international markets.
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