Olympic gold coin collection surges ahead

15/6/00

Western Australia's reputation as a producer of high quality, precious metal value-added coins has been boosted by the enormous success of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program.
Premier Richard Court said today that 4,000,000 gold, silver and bronze coins had already been sold in 50 countries worldwide.
The first of the coins in the collection was released in October 1997. Up until May this year, 53 coins have been released.
"The sale of the collection has exceeded expectations but the best is yet to come," Mr Court said.
"The peak buying period of the collection will be in the months leading up to, during and immediately after the Olympic Games period and this is when demand is expected to skyrocket.
"The mints are very confident of a complete sell-out of at least the gold coins in the collection and that the entire program will meet its sales projections."
Mr Court said that in comparison, a total of 2.4 million commemorative coins from the United States Mint were sold during the entire Atlanta Olympiad period in 1996.
"The collection has been an outstanding success and is a credit to The Perth Mint and the Royal Australian Mint, which are working in partnership on the collection," he said.
"After depressed prices and a downturn in exploration activity in the gold sector, the industry now seems to be picking up.
"One of the remarkable successes in gold this year has been in jewellery, with outstanding gains in jewellery consumption during the first quarter of this year, including 79 per cent in Turkey, 59 per cent in South East Asia, and 45 per cent in Brazil."
Media contact: Justine Whittome 9222 9475