Perth- City, Art & Gold

It turns out we didn't take too many street photos but here's one.

There was a window display with quite interesting ladies' dresses and hats. Here are a few of them. To me, they look terribly uncomfortable but very showy for a catwalk. B- the store was called and focused on wearable art.

I don't remember where B filled up on mussels but... (B comment- we had lunch at King's Park and this was the daily special. YUM!)

We visited the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Quite a lot of it was on the modern side but I loved this carving of a kookaburra. This was done by a Melbourne artist in  1913.

Visiting the Perth Mint
The Perth Mint opened in 1899 with the discovery of gold in Western Australia. The British Government established a branch of the British Royal Mint in Perth. The Perth population exploded from 23,000 in 1969 to 180,000 in 1900. Gold was deposited in raw form by diggers and it was refined and turned into coins. Gold continued to be refined here until 1990 then the refining work was moved elsewhere in Perth. Ta da! The Perth Mint.

 Celebrating the gold diggers of Australia.

We watched a "gold pour." In a room that used to contain 15 kilns to melt gold there is only 1 now. They started doing this show with a single gold bar and are still using the same bar in multiple shows a day for 25 years.We learned that when the room was converted to just the one kiln, and part of the area was turned into a gallery, $22,000 worth of gold was recovered from the ceiling. There is still a lot of gold in the walls. Naturally the gold bar they started with 25 years ago is now slightly smaller.

The gold is heated to 1200C. They can only use the same crucible in which to melt the gold a few weeks. Used crucibles are then crushed and the gold is recovered. The gold seeps into the walls during the heating.

 The gold bar emerges!

After being quickly cooled in water, he holds the gold bar to show everyone. He pointed out there is a guard at the door during the presentation.

We saw the largest coin ever made! It weighs one ton and is solid gold. Dimensions? 80 cm wide and 13 cm thick. By day, they are not the least bit worried about the coin being stolen but, just in case, there is a guard or two at the door. At night, the coin is lowered into a below ground vault. Value? more than $60 million US.

We also got to see real or fake versions some of the largest gold nuggets in Australia and the world. Newmont's "Normandy" was found in 1995. At 25.5 kg (56 lbs.) and it was the 2nd largest gold nugget found in Australia and 26th largest in the world. It somehow escaped being melted down. I believe this one, a real nugget, was on display in the museum. Another nugget, this was one fake, was the largest ever found in the world- 72 kg (159 lbs.)and found in 1869 it is called "Welcome Stranger." Our guide moved 3 large "fake" nuggets around in a wheel barrel to share the samples with us and tell us the history of each.

There is a small "museum" to explain the history of the mint. You could also have a custom coin made. There were some really lovely coins minted at the Perth Mint over the years. The one I loved was no longer available. It was coral reef based. Oh, well.

These are the planchet strips after coin blanks have been cut out from silver and gold plates. The way they displayed them was very artsy. Naturally, they melt down and reuse every gram from the planchets.

Also displayed in the museum is an 1899 gold sovereign- the very first coin produced at the mint.