Perth Mint

(November, 2025)

Australia’s official bullion mint (est. 1899) is at 310 Hay Street (conveniently near the Grosvenor Hotel), built in a style known as Federation Romanesque.

Established to handle the West’s gold rush by refining gold nuggets and producing gold sovereigns for the Empire, the Mint continues a roaring trade, as gold continues to out-perform tech stocks and U.S. Bonds.

There is a venerable coin press, and visitors taking the organised tour can strike their own token:

The Mint is the oldest still producing coins of legal tender, along with collection-pieces, such as the Australian Lunar Silver Series II (2010) featuring the Year of the Tiger.

The one tonne gold coin (below) is the most valuable gold coin in the world, and if it were put up for auction (let’s say get Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos and Mr. Soros liquored-up, in the same room – probably virtually would be the only way to go), and the successful bidder might expunge Australia’s burgeoning financial deficit.

The Gold Pour

The highlight of the tour had our guide, Dakota, donning a safety suit reminiscent of Darius Jedburgh at Northmoor in Edge of Darkness – heating gold up to about a thousand degrees and drawing the crucible of molten gold from the furnace.

She carefully poured the gold into a mould and then immersed it in plain water.

The ingot cools fairly quickly, and voila!

Dakota spoke about the need for strict safety procedures when handling molten gold, but I don’t know – there was a state-of-the-art emergency shower nearby: