Australian Mints Running Out of Gold Because of Corona Virus Lockdown

By Jack Sylvester 5 years ago

Over the first four months of the year, Australian mints have experienced a big surge in demand for gold due to the uncertainty caused by the Coronavirus. Other mints across the world have been forced to stop the production on non-essential products because of the pandemic. In April, The Perth Mint reported that it has sold $340 million worth of bullion in one month, this is more than a 500% increase on the amount of gold sold in the same period in the previous year. The amount of gold bullion sold is more than 120,000 ounces. An ounce is selling for about $2,850 AUD.

This surge shows that investors are gearing up for an economic crisis and buying as much gold as they can. Gold dealers Brisbane have in turn reported that they have been running out of inventory and asking their clients if they have any gold they would like to sell. The last time something like this happened was the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. You would think that people would be saving for hard times but history has proven that during such crisis as the one we de currently experiencing, currencies tend to lose their value and in a couple of months the dollar would only be able to by far less than it used to whilst the price of gold rises. Savvy investors would be moving their money from stock market which has taken some serious knocks as the global economy grinds to a halt. 

Perth mint has reported that the majority of its investment grade gold is being exported to the United States of America and Germany. Perth is one of the few mints in the world that has remained opened and has therefore been able to supply the rest of the world with gold bullion products. The mint had to cut some product lines to focus on its most popular products which are the Kangaroo coins.

The Royal Australian Mint based in Canberra has also reported a growth in the demand for investment grade product. They occupy a niche market because their focus is mainly on collector and circulation Australian currency coins. The sale of coins from the Royal Australian Mint has grown by close to 40%.

Circulating coins aren’t typically in demand at this time of year because banks will use up what they have. During the beginning of the outbreak, people stopped using coins because there were fears that they made it easy to pass the virus from one person to another. Businesses also preferred electronic payments and tap-and-go payments. This affected the Mint’s production of circulating coins.  This could be a legacy effect of the pandemic and we could see more Australians converting more to electronic means instead of cash. As for collector’s coins, even Gold dealers Brisbane have been experiencing a reduction of collector coins coming into their stores as more people choose to hold on to their coins for longer than ever before. However, there are people feeling the profound pinch of the Pandemic and subsequent Lockdown restrictions that have affected how people earned money. Those who need money and have coins to sell may be pleasantly surprised as the value of investor coins has more than doubled. Certainly, Australians have been feeling the pinch and coping as one would expect during these difficult times.