2016 0.05 oz Gold Coin Lunar Year of the Monkey Perth Mint Bullion

The Perth Mint's 2016 lunar coins were released on 5th October, 2015. We received our first delivery on 15th October. The Year of the Monkey officially starts on February 8th, 2016. It is the Chinese year 4714. The monkey is the 9th animal in the lunar cycle. People born in the Year of the Monkey are said to be intelligent, ambitious and adventurous. They can however have a mischievous side.

The Chinese Lunar Calendar is based on a 12 year cycle. Each year is associated with a different animal. Australia's Perth Mint started issuing series of Chinese Lunar Calendar Coin, both in gold and silver, in 1996, with the Year of the Rat. The 12 year cycle of this first series ran from 1996 to 2007 inclusive, and all designs proved to be very popular. In fact, we rarely manage to buy any of the older years, which tend to be very hard to source. The second series has proved even more popular than the first, with the one ounce coins being massively oversubscribed at The Mint. We recommend that you buy this year's coins while we still have them available.

The obverse features the Ian Rank-Broadley fourth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Even though a fifth portrait was of the Queen was unveiled in 2015, the coins still feature the fourth portrait, so as to keep them the same as other coins in the series.

The coin’s reverse shows an adult monkey sitting on a branch of a peach tree, which is symbolic of longevity and immortality. The Chinese character for ‘monkey’ and the inscription ‘Year of the Monkey’ also appear in the design with The Perth Mint’s traditional ‘P’ mintmark.