1999 100 Year Gold Heritage Set

To celebrate a century of gold production at the Perth Mint, this special 100 Year Heritage Set was released. The coins in the set are:
  • 1899 'P' Sovereign and
  • 1999 $25 - Quarter Ounce Proof Nugget.
    • The centerpiece of the set is a group of small natural gold nuggets with a total weight of approximately quarter of an ounce. Mintage was restricted to 255 sets - the number of suitable, original 1899 'P' mintmark soverigns which could be located and allocated for the project. The coins and nuggets in the set, with the coins individually encapsulated, are housed in an oval presentation case carved from Desert Blackbutt.

    Valuation :
    1999 100 Year Gold Heritage Set

    As Issued
    2002 1,195

    Notes:

    The importance of gold in the Perth Mint's 100 year history is captured in this special centenary release. The set traces the story of the early alluvial and nugget gold refined at the Mint, its minting into the first gold sovereign, and finally its successor and most recent gold coin, the Australian Nugget, one hundred years later.

    Natural nuggets started it all. Tens of thousands of prospectors came to Western Australia in the 1890's from all parts of the world to seek their fortunes in the State's harsh eastern goldfields. The approximately one quarter of an ounce of assorted natural gold nuggets, as the centerpiece of the set, is representative of what the early prospectors found. Natural nuggets are a limited and diminishing resource, as almost all nuggets found before the 1990's were melted down to be lost forever.

    The sovereign was the first coin struck by the Perth Mint in 1899 using newly refined gold extracted from Western Australia's goldfields. Each 100 Year Heritage Sets contains an original 1899-dated sovereign. The coin's reverse features Benedetto Pistrucci's neo-classical design of St. George slaying the Dragon. The obverse shows the 'veiled head' design of a 74-year-old Queen Victoria, with a small 'P' mintmark located in the ground below the rear hooves of the horse.

    The Australian Nugget was the coin that re-launched the Perth Mint on the international stage in 1986 as a major producer of gold and precious metal coins. The 1999 proof Australian Nugget quarter ounce coin contains gold refined to a millesimal purity of 999.9 parts gold in 1,000, and bears a 'P100' mintmark to celebrate the Mint's centenary.

    The Desert Blaclbutt from which the presentation case was carved, is a timber that was widely used by miners to strengthen their mine shafts in the Western Australian goldfields.

    Sources:
    The Perth Mint - A Century of Excellence Unfolds - Publicity brochure, 1999.

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