The world's largest gold coin

The world's largest gold coin is the one-tonne Australian kangaroo coin produced by the Perth Mint in Western Australia in 2011.

Australian kangaroo one ton coin. Photo: Expedia — Australian kangaroo one ton coin. Photo: *Expedia*

As its name suggests, the kangaroo-shaped coin weighs a ton, or about 11 kangaroos, and is 99.99% pure gold. Produced to commemorate the mint's gold kangaroo coin series that has been in circulation since 1989, the coin has a face value of 1 million Australian dollars ($648,000), making it the world's largest fiat currency (used to pay debts or financial obligations denominated in a currency), according to IFL Science .

The coin is 12cm thick and 80cm tall. Its impressive size, purity and record-breaking status mean that while the coin is valued at $1 million AUD, the current market value of the gold used to mint it alone is around $110,055,898 AUD ($71,429,850 USD), making the coin’s true value much higher than its face value.

Entered into the Guinness Book of World Records a year after its release, the coin was exhibited across Asia and Europe in 2014, and even traveled to New York on a one-day trip in 2019 to promote the Perth Mint’s investment fund, Perth Mint Physical Gold (AAAU). The mint also owns several smaller kangaroo coins, including a 28 gram coin with a face value of 100 Australian dollars ($65).

The previous record was held by a 99.7-kilogram Canadian coin called The Big Maple Leaf. It was the first of five identical coins minted in 2007. It has a face value of 1 million Canadian dollars ($741,000), but like the kangaroo coin, its actual value far exceeds that.

“We thought it would be best to create a coin so much larger that it would remain the world’s largest coin for a long time,” Ed Harbuz, chief executive of the Perth Mint, said in a statement. “Smelting and handcrafting a coin of this size and weight is a unique challenge that few other mints would even consider.”

Australia, home to the largest gold nugget ever found, sparked one of the world's greatest gold rushes in the 19th century and its vast reserves are still being actively mined today. The total amount of gold ever discovered on Earth would fit into a 23-meter cube.

An Khang (According to IFL Science )

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