What pours forth from that giant hole? Some of the purest gold on Earth. No joke. These fire-wielders are funnelling 1000kg of 99.99 per cent pure gold into a mould to cast the largest, most-valuable coin in history.
In an act of either divine inspiration or profound hubris, the Perth Mint in WA just made a one-tonne Kangaroo Gold Bullion Coin. Why? To paraphrase the reasoning of the Perth Mint’s CEO, “because we felt like it and we can”.
The whole process of making the coin, including design, polishing and detail work, took over three months. Even though it would be horribly impractical to use this coin in real life, the mint, which is owned by the government, had it certified as legal tender worth $1 million. It even has the Queen on the obverse side.
If the coin were actually for sale it would be a sweet deal: On the open market that huge hunk of gold would go for more than $50 million.