Wedge Tail Eagle

The Perth Mint’s Australian Silver Wedge Tail Eagle Coinage

Australia’s Perth Mint is famous for producing gold and silver coins for sale with wildlife found on the continent. Some of the species featured on Perth Mint coinage are endemic to the continent of Australia, while others are prominent, but also found on neighboring nations in the South Pacific. The Australian Silver Wedge Tail Eagle coin is a popular issue from the Perth Mint that features a unique connection to the United States, which issues the most popular eagle-themed coin in the form of the American Silver Eagle.

Australian Silver Wedge Tail Eagle Designs

Introduced in 2014, the designs in the Silver Wedge Tail Eagle Series initially used shared designs in spurts. The 2014 and 2015 coins featured the same reverse, while a new reverse design was introduced in 2016 that was then shared on the 2017 design. The available designs to date include:

• 2014-2015: the first design depicted the wedge tail eagle in left-profile relief swooping across the design toward a branch.
• 2016-2017: for the second overall design, the wedge tail eagle is shown perched on a large branch with its wings at its sides as it looks to the distance.
• 2018: for the third design, a wedge tail eagle in the foreground tends to a small hatchling in the nest as another adult swoops toward the nest in the distant background.
• 2019: in the fourth design, the eagle is shown from below looking up to the sky as it swoops overhead with stylized rays of light emanating from behind its figure.
• 2020: the fifth design shows a close-up image of the head of the wedge tail eagle in right-profile relief with its talons extended in the foreground.
• 2021: the sixth design is one of the more stirring in the series with the eagle shown in right-profile relief with a snake in its talons.
• 2022: the seventh image in the series shows the head of the eagle in left-profile relief with its beak open.
• 2023: for the eight design of the collection, the wedge tail eagle is shown perched in right-profile relief on a large branch as it raises its wings into the air above its figure.
• 2024: the 10th-anniversary issue offers a stirring glimpse of the wedge tail eagle. Here, it is shown from below as the wedge tail eagle soars overhead between the viewer and the sun. The rays of sunlight silhouette the massive frame of the eagle as it glides through the sky, it’s distinctive wedge-shaped tail easily visible.

On the obverse, the Australian Silver Wedge Tail follows in the footsteps of all major 2019 silver bullion coins from the Perth Mint. The sixth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II to ever feature on Australian coinage debuts on 2019 date marked bullion. This right-profile portrait is based on Jody Clark’s fifth-generation design for the Royal Mint of England. This effigy features the image of Her Majesty at the age of 89 wearing the Royal Diadem crown. Unlike its British counterparts, this design includes the Queen’s neckline and shoulders, a feature not used on Australian coins since 1966.

As of the 2024 release, His Majesty King Charles III features on the obverse of Silver Wedge Tail Eagles. The new portrait comes from Dan Thorne and depicts His Majesty in left-profile relief and does not include a crown on his head.

Mintage and Information on the Australian Silver Wedge Tail Eagle

When the Australian Silver Wedge Tail Eagle coin debuted in 2014, the Perth Mint capped mintage for the silver bullion coins at 50,000 in total. From 2015 to 2017, the Perth Mint used an unlimited mintage cap, which for Perth means striking the coins to meet demand only through the end of the calendar year of issue featured on the coin. With silver demand cooling throughout 2017 and into 2018, the Perth Mint reestablished a mintage cap for the Silver Wedge Tail Eagle in 2018 at 50,000 coins. Since introduction, the Australian Silver Wedge Tail Eagle Coin was struck with 1 Troy oz of silver content and a face value of $1 (AUD) backed by the federal government of Australia.

Connection to the United States

The Perth Mint’s Australian Silver Wedge Tail Eagle coin is unique in a variety of ways, and none of those is more interesting than the man behind the design of the Wedge Tail Eagles each time a new design comes out. John Mercanti, the 12^th Chief Engraver of the United States Mint (2006-2010), designs the Wedge Tail Eagles for the Perth Mint. Mercanti has created all designs to date and was responsible for countless projects during his three-decade career with the United States Mint which started at the Philadelphia Mint. Among his greatest contributions is the modernized heraldic eagle of the United States depicted on the reverse of the American Silver Eagle coin.

Buy Your Australian Silver Wedge Tail Eagle Coins from JM Bullion

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