Australian Perth Mint Lunar Series III Year of the Rabbit Coin Possible Pre-Sale Date?

DeutscherGeist

I collect this particular series and was wondering when the pre-sale begins. Anyone with any insights?

I saw APMEX already put a placeholder on their website indicating that it is coming soon.

Sapyx

"Mid-October" I believe was the original release date, but I suspect their schedule has been smashed by the Queen's death. They may still be deciding whether to release the ones they've already made with Elizabeth II's portrait, or melt them all and start again with Charles III portraits.

DeutscherGeist

If they wait for a Charles III portrait, it could take several months to a year in order to follow the proper procedures of doing so. A 2023 coin should have Charles III, but would it be a precedent to have some coins of Elizabeth II and Charles III for the 2023 dated coins?

Sapyx

I think it would be a case of, how much would the Mint be prepared to embarrass itself by deliberately issuing "wrong portrait mint errors". They've already made and sold some, which is embarrassing enough, but for those ones already sold they could always say "we didn't know the Queen was going to die before 2023". Now, they do know.

The Royal Mint already has a Charles III portrait approved, in record time, and Perth Mint uses the approved Royal Mint portraits. They should have working dies ready by the end of the year, so every coin actually made in 2023 should be a Charles III coin. But they may not be ready early enough to have coins prepped and packaged for the Christmas sales.

Each mint is going to have to decide what to do; there's no precedent for this, because the mints weren't ante-dating a whole bunch of NCLT coins back in 1952. But no Commonwealth mint has ever deliberately struck and issued a "wrong portrait" coin before; in previous monarch transitions, when coins were needed and the portrait wasn't ready, they simply kept issuing old-portrait coins with the previous year's date. I believe the Royal Australian Mint is going to try to melt and re-strike all its made-but-unissued 2023 QEII coins. I haven't seen any info on what Perth Mint are planning.

DeutscherGeist

I see what you are saying. There simply cannot be a 2023 coin with Queen Elizabeth II. If a Charles III portrait is already approved, then I think the lunar coins will be delayed well into 2023. The Perth Mint can, however, make more 2022 coins I suppose, the year of the tiger. However, a supply of tiger coins in 2023 really does not make sense when it is the year of the rabbit. The lunar series, itself, seems to complicate things further.

I was late to the tiger catch last year and I just do not want to miss catching the rabbit.

DeutscherGeist

I looked on the APMEX site, and sure enough, they are now making it possible for us to receive alerts once the coin becomes available. The images have Queen Elizabeth II on gold and silver coins for the Perth Mint Lunar III series in 2023. I subscribed to the alerts as I want to order them as soon as they come out no matter which monarch is portrayed on the obverse.

Sapyx

The Perth Mint website itself says:
Silver coins: the colorized and regular 1 ounce coins are listed as "backorder", the 1/2 ounce is "out of stock" and the 3-coin set is "unavailable".
Gold coins: the 1 ounce coins are "out of stock", but orders are open for the 1/2 and 1/4 ounce coins.

Still not entirely sure exactly what it means, in terms of when people will get their coins and whose portrait will be on the other side, though since the promo material all still show QE2 obverses, I guess they're now obligated to deliver coins with QE2 obverses, otherwise they could be accused of "bait and switch" and be liable for misrepresentation of goods. I'm sure at least some of those people who have already placed orders, did so because of the whole "wrong monarch" thing.

DeutscherGeist

Well, the rabbit coin has been out for a few days and QE2 is on the obverse. It's a done deal.