Perth Mint Uniface "trial strikes"

[markn]

A few times a year on eBay you might see a Perth Mint Uniface "trial strike" appear for sale on eBay.  They are usually described as being struck from aluminium and show the reverse design of a 1993 or 1994 Kookaburra silver coin, 1oz, 2ox, 5oz, or 10oz.  It's never sat well with me that so many of these "trial strikes" escaped into the wild and got into collectors hands.  One or two, maybe, but dozens?  How does that happen?  Well, PPH and I may have solved the mystery:

http://www.australian-threepence.com/coin-news/perth-mint-off-metal-trial-strikes-what-are-they/

[trout]

Great "Sleuthing" Mark, Awesome job  :good:
You have probably irked many an eBay scam artist with this information :yahoo:

[JeffH]

That is good to know.
Nothing wrong with advertising them for sale if;
•they have been obtained legitimately and
•they are correctly described for what they are.
Is my assumption correct that the eBay descriptions of these might be deficient?

[markn]

Is my assumption correct that the eBay descriptions of these might be deficient?

Not just eBay, I've seen big auction houses selling them as trial strikes too.  To be fair perhaps they don't know any better.  And, of course, I could be wrong.

[serial]

out of interest, would they still be valuable? I mean they are of metal uniface strikes aren't they?
I actually saw one last Saturday at a coin show that a friend bought for $25. I had passed up on it because I didn't know if it was real or not. if I had read your article I would have purchased it in a heart beat!
having said that it is different to the ones you have shown, it was a 10oz gold koala that was struck in white metal so I am not sure how it would have been used as an advertising piece

[markn]

Perhaps they hadn't gold plated it or painted it or whatever?  Or someone removed the paint?  And yes, I think they are still worth something, I'd certainly like a set.

[trout]

I wonder just how many of these on display boards are sitting around in various Dealers "Junk Rooms" ??

[markn]

I wonder just how many of these on display boards are sitting around in various Dealers "Junk Rooms" ??

I few I imagine.  I'm trying to get my hands on one of the "trial strikes" from these boards and will post up images if/when I get it.

[JeffH]

From Mark's photo it looks like some are quite large. I can envisage them mounted on a polished timber plaque (maybe even one of AJ's burls) and hanging on the wall.
Would be quite a nice decoration and a great conversation piece.

[serial]

I have requested pictures of it. I will post them when I get them

[drakesterling]

A few times a year on eBay you might see a Perth Mint Uniface "trial strike" appear for sale on eBay.  They are usually described as being struck from aluminium and show the reverse design of a 1993 or 1994 Kookaburra silver coin, 1oz, 2ox, 5oz, or 10oz.  It's never sat well with me that so many of these "trial strikes" escaped into the wild and got into collectors hands.  One or two, maybe, but dozens?  How does that happen?  Well, PPH and I may have solved the mystery:

http://www.australian-threepence.com/coin-news/perth-mint-off-metal-trial-strikes-what-are-they/

Very good markn. I have to admit, I've visited Bob Robert's shop countless times for decades and it never occurred to me that that the prop display from the Perth Mint might have been the source of these mysterious "off-metal" uniface "patterns".

Eric

[markn]

I've traded for a couple of Perth Mint advertising pieces this week.  You can see images below.  The person I obtained them from bought them from a dealer in Melbourne.  The larger uniface piece (25mm, 7.3g) came from a Perth Mint advertising board, the smaller pad-printed item (15.8mm, 2.4g) was handed out by the Perth Mint to international distributors to promote the 2004 lunar coins.  Apparently the smaller one has been XRF'd as 999 silver.  The larger uniface item ISN'T aluminium, it's too heavy.  Some back of the envelope sums comparing the mass and relative density of platinum and silver suggest it's probably silver or silver plated copper.  Did the PM put silver or silver plated representations of the smaller coins on the advertising boards?  

[markn]

OK, final update to this.  We've been in contact with the Perth Mint.  Here's what they had to say:

The Koala Facsimiles are silver plated Copper – these were stuck onto Portfolio Boards for display at various conventions etc.  They were made for a number of years.

Marketing has confirmed that the  Koalas were Silver Plated Copper, Kookaburras Silver Plated Aluminium and Kangaroos Gold Plated Copper.

[markn]

Just FYI, look at this auction result:

https://www.statusint.com/result_coins.php?id=30

Now look at the bottom facsimile coin in the Platinum Koala range on the right of the Portfolio Board here:

[trout]

Just FYI, look at this auction result:

https://www.statusint.com/result_coins.php?id=30

Going by your Detective work on these I would say that Status owes the buyer a refund and an apology on that sale :ok: