2022 Great Southern Land 2oz Gold Proof Opal Coin

This beautiful coin features the great southern Australian continentin stunning Australian opal.Since antiquity, European philosophers speculated that a large continent existed in the Southern Hemisphere to ‘balance’ those of the north. Terra Australis was the Latin termthey coined to describe the posited great southland which different navigators explored inpartsuntil Royal Navy cartographer Matthew Flinders completed the first circumnavigationof the island-continent now known as Australiain 1803. Europeans were astonished by the exotic wildlife and extraordinary natural treasures they encountered. Familiar to First Nations people forat least 60,000 years, they included the isolated land’s famous pouched marsupials, and opal,which in its most precious form flashes with abrilliant ‘play of colour’. Opal is Australia’s national gemstone. In ancient Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, it was created when a rainbow touched the earth. It is also knownto Indigenous people as the ‘fire of the desert’. Today, Australia produces the overwhelmingmajority of the world’s precious opal, which whencut and polished can be used to create some ofthe world’s most alluring jewellery pieces.

Struck by The Perth Mint from 2oz of 99.99% pure goldin proof quality, the coin is issued as legal tender under the Australian Currency Act 1965.The Perth Mint will release no more than 200 of the Great Southern Land 2022 2oz Gold Proof Opal Coin.

The coin's reverse encircles an opalinsert in the shape of the Australian continentand celebratesAustralia’s iconic animals. The coindepicts representations of a Tasmanian devil, koala, emu, kangaroo,wombat, bilby, monitor lizard, echidna, snake,and frilled-neck lizard.Included in the designis the coin’s weight, purity and year-date.The obverse bears the Jody Clark effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the coin’s monetary denomination.

GoldContent (Troy oz)2Monetary Denomination (AUD)200Fineness (% purity)99.99Minimum Gross Weight (g) 62.213Maximum Diameter (mm) 36.60Maximum Thickness (mm)6.00Maximum Mintage200DesignerAleysha Howarth