Gold Nugget Specifications, Information & History

The Australian Gold Nugget is the official gold bullion coin of Australia. It is minted by the Perth Mint and was first introduced in 1986. The coins have been minted in denominations of 1/20 oz, 1/10 oz, 1/4 oz, 1/2 oz, 1 oz, 2 oz, 10 oz, and 1 kg of (.999) 24 carat gold. They have legal tender status in Australia. The Gold Nugget is one of few legal tender bullion gold coins to change their design every year.

From 1986 – 1989 the coins featured various Australian Nugget designs (and were named after a 2,284 oz nugget found in Western Australia) but from 1989 the coins feature different Kangaroo designs. This design change reflects the fact that the Kangaroo is more recognisable as a symbol of Australia. The coin is also now known as the Australian Kangaroo as well as the Nugget.

Gold Nugget Technical Specifications


Size	Face Value AUS$	Total Weight (g)	Fineness /1.000	Gold Content (T oz)	Gold Content (g)	Diameter (mm)	Thick (mm)
1 Kg	$3,000	1000.00	.9999	32.154	1000.00	74.50mm	15.80mm
10 Oz	$1,000	311.040	.9999	10.00	311.040	59.7	7.65
2 Oz	$ 200	62.208	.9999	2.00	62.208	40.1	3.4
1 Oz	$ 100	31.104	.9999	1.00	31.104	32.1	2.7
Half	$ 50	15.552	.9999	0.50	15.552	28	1.6
Quarter	$ 25	7.776	.9999	0.25	7.776	22	1.2
Tenth	$ 10	3.110	.9999	0.10	3.110	16	1.2
Twentieth	$ 5	1.555	.9999	0.05	-	-	-

From 1989 the reverse of the coin features a kangaroo design which is changed every year on the lower denomination coins. The 2oz, 10oz and 1kg Nugget design stays the same every year, featuring the classic jumping kangaroo design by Dr Stuart Devlin, jeweller and goldsmith to HM Queen Elizabeth II. They also feature the inscription “THE AUSTRALIAN NUGGET”, weight, purity and mint year. The inscription “NUGGET” on the reverse side was used until 2008 when it was replaced with the word "KANGAROO".

The obverse side of the coin has the Ian Rank-Broadley image of HM Queen Elizabeth II, with the inscriptions Elizabeth II and Australia in an arc above the Queen’s image and the face value of the coin inscribed below the image.