Lunar Series

Among all the bullion coin ranges traded around the globe, the Lunar Series sits near the top for both fame and collector following. The Perth Mint — one of the world's most respected mints — puts out a fresh edition every year carrying the emblem of that year's Chinese zodiac animal. Over its twelve-year arc the cycle runs through rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

The Story and Its Three Series

The programme opened in 1996 with Series I, spanning the years 1996 to 2007. Once that first full zodiac cycle had wrapped up, 2008 ushered in Series II (2008–2019), sporting reworked, finer-grained coin artwork. From 2020 onward Series III has been in production, once again bringing new designs together with a subtly reworked edge.

Denominations and Metals

Struck chiefly in gold and silver — and now and then in platinum and palladium — the Lunar Series spans a wide slate of sizes. The key ones:

Each denomination bears a legal face value in Australian dollars, making it official legal tender — even if its metal worth dwarfs that face value many times over. You can confirm the fine weight with the coin weight checker.

Bullion or Proof

The Lunar Series comes in two finishes:

• Bullion (the investment coin): a matte field, made with investors in mind, produced in larger numbers, carrying a slimmer premium (agio).
• Proof: a mirror-finish field with a frosted motif, minted in strictly limited numbers and boxed elaborately with a certificate — pitched more at collectors.

The gap in price between the two is far from trivial: proof issues fetch markedly steeper premiums over the bare metal value. The prevailing gold price and silver price each set the baseline for pricing the metal content.

Melt Value and Premium

Because the fineness runs to 999.9/1000, the melt value of a 1-ounce gold Lunar coin sits roughly level with the current gold spot price for a single troy ounce:

Melt value (€) = spot price (€/oz) × fineness × weight (oz)

For any combination of weight and fineness, the melt value calculator will return the precise figure.

Where gold is concerned, bullion Lunar coins usually carry a premium of somewhere between 3% and 10% over the metal value; for silver it climbs a good deal higher, thanks to VAT and the smaller denomination sizes. As with any range, the fractional pieces (1/10 oz, say) bear a proportionally heftier premium than the 1-oz standard.

Tax Treatment in Malta (not tax advice)

Gold coins from the Lunar Series (a 1 oz gold piece, for instance) come under Malta's VAT exemption for investment gold by virtue of Directive 2006/112/EC, so long as they clear the statutory bar (fineness ≥ 900/1000, minted after 1800, and legal tender — or formerly legal tender — in the issuing country). Silver Lunar coins, by contrast, attract Malta's standard VAT rate of 18%. On the disposal side, Malta charges no capital gains tax on private sales of movable assets such as precious-metal coins — its capital gains regime bites only on particular asset classes (immovable property, securities, business interests), and nothing like the German speculation period exists here. For a binding answer, talk to a tax adviser — none of this is tax or investment advice. Sources: cfr.gov.mt, legislation.mt, eur-lex.europa.eu.

In Brief

The Perth Mint's Lunar Series pairs top-tier coin quality (999.9 fineness) with the cultural pull of the Chinese zodiac calendar. It works equally well as a bullion coin held for investment and as a collector's item — with the premium swinging widely according to finish and denomination.