I'm looking for some help to understand what I'm seeing. I'm a collector of the Australian MS Silver Lunar Series, where (in the past) each year a new coin depicting that year's animal was issued by the perth mint. This year is the first I've noticed the 2008-2010 Lunar coins pre-released for sale on ebay in advance of the year. I've looked though the perth mint site; and although found several other advanced dated coins, there were not any silver lunar pre-released for sale by the mint. Is this pre-release a new thing? Can I assume these pre-released coins will be the same in the 2008-2010 years to come? Will the mint issue a different variety in 2008-2010? Has anyone stumbled accross this?
Interesting. I too collect lunars (1 oz only) & this was the first I've heard of this. They do appear to be legit, at least I hope being that some are slabbed by NGC they're legit. Also Apmex has them (for a good price) & they're a legit dealer. The Perth Mint does have 1oz Gilded Edition and Kilo Diamond Eye versions of these listed on their site... http://www.perthmint.com.au/australian-lunar-final-release.aspx I don't see the regular silvers on their site, but I don't recall them ever listing anything but proofs with the P mint mark, gilded, colorized, etc. on them on their site. AFAIK you can only buy the regular coins from authorized dealers & not direct.
Also an australian lunar collector here (1oz silver and gold - though getting harder to finish the set for some reason). From what I recall is that the 08, 09, and 10 silvers were released the same year so that the lunar seriers 2 for both gold and silver would start together (as the first silver lunar series started after the gold one). "CMIGS has learned that The Perth Mint soon will announce that it will cease production of its popular Lunar Series coins, both the gold coins and the silver coins." http://www.cmi-gold-silver.com/lunar-series-ends.html
I was checking that link of these and look interesting. The silver ones with the gold are nice. The diamond ones are crazy though at those prices. Talk about a premium lol.
And looks like the 2008 gold will be out very soon (series II): http://www.taxfreegold.co.uk/2008australiachineselunarcalendarrat.html
