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The Perth Mint's original platinum bullion coin and, with the Platinum Maple Leaf, one of the first two national 1 oz platinum coins, first struck in September 1988 after the Australian government authorised platinum coinage the year before. Legal tender at $100 AUD, 1 oz of .9995 fine platinum, with a koala design that changed every year. Demand faded in the late 1990s and the series ended in 2000; the Platinum Kangaroo replaced it in 2018.
Australian Platinum Koala melt value tracks platinum spot price directly — this chart is the same live platinum price used to calculate the melt value above, so you can see the trend behind today's number.
What is actually struck on each face, and who designed it.
Raphael Maklouf's effigy of Queen Elizabeth II (Ian Rank-Broadley's from 1999) with "AUSTRALIA", "100 DOLLARS" and the date.
A koala, in a different pose each year — sitting on a eucalyptus branch, climbing, with a joey — with "AUSTRALIAN KOALA", the weight and "9995 PLATINUM". The annually changing design is what made the series collectible.
On 18 June 1987 the Australian government approved platinum and silver coinage to follow the success of the gold Nugget launched the year before. The Perth Mint chose the koala for platinum and began striking in September 1988 in 1 oz, 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz, 1/10 oz and 1/20 oz sizes; 2 oz, 10 oz and 1 kg coins were added in 1991.
Where most bullion coins keep a fixed design, the Koala changed annually, drawn by a rotating group of Mint artists. That made it a set to collect as well as a way to hold platinum, and it is why individual years can trade at different premiums today — low-mintage years from the late 1990s in particular.
Platinum investment demand collapsed in the late 1990s; in 2000 the Mint struck just 2,048 1 oz Koalas against a permitted 100,000 and ended the programme. No platinum Koalas were made after 2000, so like the Isle of Man Noble the supply is fixed. All are .9995 fine and contain exactly the stated platinum weight.
About the Australian Platinum Koala
At the current platinum spot price of $1,771.80/oz, the melt value of a Australian Platinum Koala (1 troy oz, .9995 fine platinum) is approximately $1,771.80. This updates continuously with the spot price above — sellers on the marketplace typically price above melt value, since the premium covers minting, distribution, and dealer margin.
Melt value is the raw metal content only — what you'd get scrapping the coin. The premium above it pays for minting, distribution, and dealer margin, and on this marketplace specifically, it's set by each individual seller rather than one company's price list, so it's worth comparing a few listings rather than buying the first one you see.
Like any commodity, platinum trades on global supply and demand — mine output and recycling on the supply side, industrial use, jewelry, and investment buying on the demand side. Short-term moves are usually driven by macro factors: interest rates, currency strength, and how much uncertainty investors are pricing into markets generally.
Government-minted bullion coins like this one are legal tender, widely recognized, and easy to resell — that recognition is usually worth the modest premium over generic rounds or bars of the same weight. For buyers who want to add to a physical position gradually, one-ounce coins are also just a convenient, liquid unit size.
This page shows melt value — spot price times pure metal content, recalculated on every page load. Individual seller listings add their own premium on top, and that premium (not the melt value) is what actually varies between sellers, so it's normal for listing prices below to sit above the number at the top of this page.
Melt value at the same live platinum spot price of $1,771.80/oz.
