Buy Bullion Vaulted with The Perth Mint Certificate Program

What Are Perth Mint Certificates?

Perth Mint Certificates are one of the safest and most cost-effective methods of investing in gold, silver and platinum.

The Perth Mint Certificate Program (PMCP) is operated by the Perth Mint of Western Australia, a mint wholly owned by the Government of Western Australia. The PMCP allows U.S. investors, savers, and pension funds to own investment grade gold, silver and platinum bullion.

The Perth Mint is the trading name of Gold Corporation. It is the successor organization of the Royal Mint’s Perth branch that was founded in 1899. The certificate program is fully guaranteed by the Government of Western Australia. The government has received a very high AA+ rating from international rating agencies. PMCP is the only government-guaranteed certificate program in the world.

GoldCore was appointed as an authorized dealer for PMCP in 2005, and we are one of a select few authorized dealers of the service in the world.

What is a Perth Mint 1 oz Allocated Gold Certificate?

A Perth Mint 1 oz Allocated Gold Certificate conveys legal ownership and title of a specific 1 oz bar of gold bullion stored with The Perth Mint of Western Australia to the registered owner of the asset. It will also record the name of The Perth Mint and any conditions of storage. The certificate is physically signed by an officer of the mint and is associated with a 1 oz gold bar held in storage. In the case of gold kilo bars the certificate will record the serial bar number of the underlying bar. 

How Much Do Gold Certificates Cost?

The cost of Unallocated Gold Certificates is based on three factors:

1. The Gold Spot Price. This is the price of Gold that is available for delivery in two days that is quoted by the Perth Mint. It is based on the global spot price of gold as stated by bullion banks and quoted by market data providers such as Bloomberg and Reuters.
2. The Gold Spot Premium. The Gold Spot premium is a percentage charge that is added to the Gold Spot Price. It is offered based on the amount of metal being bought.
3. The Certificate Fee: The Certificate Fee is a $50 charge that is added to each order to cover the costs of printing and sending a signed Certificate of ownership to you, the client. Each Certificate is recorded with the client’s name, the Mint's name, details of the holding and is signed by an official of the Mint. It represents a receipt of your gold that is kept in the client’s name. In the age of digital assets, such tangibility becomes very powerful should we face risks from cyber criminals, internet shutdowns and other cyber risks.

For Allocated Certificates, clients will have a fourth pricing element, the fabrication fee.

• Fabrication fees can range from 5% for a coin, which has a high quantum of production costs, to $35 for 1 oz bars. Kilo bars of gold are a $150 flat charge and Perth Mint 1,000 oz Silver Bars are a flat $200.

Most clients interested in Perth Mint Certificates do not opt for allocated products due to the relatively high cost of storage, instead, they prefer unallocated certificates, which have no fabrication charges and no storage charges.

How to Buy Perth Mint Certificates?

Open an account, upload your identity documents, and application form and when your application is approved you can buy online.

When you buy unallocated gold through the PMCP, The Perth Mint issues a Precious Metal Certificate in your name, detailing the specific number of ounces of gold that you own and that is stored on your behalf in the Mint. PMCP unallocated gold clients have legal title to the gold stored in their unallocated account. Every certificate has a unique certificate number and is akin to a certificate of ownership.

The quantity of gold purchased will depend on the price per ounce of the metal and the amount that you have decided to invest. Perth Mint Certificates are highly liquid and can be sold through GoldCore.

Upon settlement of PMCP buy orders, The Perth Mint will send GoldCore a certificate confirming the quantity of unallocated gold purchased. If you sell part of your PMCP holding, upon settlement, The Perth Mint will send GoldCore a new certificate confirming the quantity of gold remaining.

The unallocated gold is held as an asset on the balance sheet of the Mint, and the gold that has been sold to clients is recorded as a matching balance sheet liability. Therefore, the unallocated accounts are 100% backed by gold and the asset and liability are fully matched. Any credit or insolvency risk is highly unlikely given that The Perth Mint is owned by the Government of Western Australia.

You can convert your unallocated gold at the Mint into allocated gold at any time after paying fabrication and storage charges.

In The Perth Mint Certificate Program, none of the bullion is leased or lent out to the market, short positions are not allowed, and The Perth Mint does not use financial derivatives on its gold. Perth Mint precious metals stored for clients are fully insured, and the insurance is underwritten by Lloyds of London syndicates.

The Perth Mint undertakes full quarterly inventory stocktakes using both internal and external auditors from major accounting firms in Australia. The audits are reviewed by the Auditor General of the State of Western Australia who is answerable to the State Parliament.

What is the History of The Perth Mint?

Gold has played a central role in the history and development of modern Australia. Likewise, The Perth Mint has played a central role in the history and development of Australia’s gold industry.

Australia experienced three main waves of gold rushes in the 1800s. The first two were in the Eastern goldfields of New South Wales and Victoria in the early 1850s and resulted in mass migrations of gold prospectors to Sydney and Melbourne, respectively, and the rapid growth and development of these cities.

The third series of gold rushes occurred in Western Australia towards the end of the 1800s, most significantly at Coolgardie in 1892, and Kalgoorie in 1893. Again, this led to large-scale migrations of miners to the region, and the growth and development of the coastal city of Perth. Coolgardie and Kalgoorie are situated between 550-600 km east of Perth.

During the 1800s, Australia had evolved as a series of colonies under British rule. Like the rest of the British Empire, the Australian colonies used gold sovereign and gold half-sovereigns as circulating currency. Initially, the gold found in New South Wales and Victoria was shipped back to The Royal Mint in London to be converted into sovereigns and then returned to Australia.

When it was realized that local mints would be more cost-effective, The Royal Mint proceeded to open its first branch mint in Sydney in 1855. A second branch mint followed in Melbourne in 1872.

Likewise, following the gold discoveries in Western Australia, The Royal Mint opened its third branch mint in Perth in 1899. Miners from the western goldfields would deposit their gold at The Perth Mint wherein it was minted into gold sovereigns. The sovereigns manufactured in Australia were not purely for domestic use and also circulated as currency through The British Empire as Britain was on a gold standard. Sovereigns produced by each of the three branch mints were differentiated by mint marks on the coins, S for Sydney, M for Melbourne and P for Perth.

In 1931, Britain abandoned “the gold standard”, and so the Australian Mints stopped making gold sovereigns. (The Sydney Mint had closed in 1926). Between 1899 and 1931, The Perth Mint created more than 106 million gold sovereigns and nearly 735,000 half-sovereigns. The Perth Mint then turned to make gold bullion bars and during WWII became involved in the production of Australian coins. Until 1984, the Mint manufactured much of Australia’s conventional coin currency. (The Melbourne mint had closed in 1972).

The Perth Mint stayed under Britain’s jurisdiction until July 1970, after which ownership transferred to the State Government of Western Australia. Then in 1987, the Mint’s parent company Gold Corporation was created by a by a State Act of Parliament.

The Mint was then empowered by the Commonwealth of Australia’s Department of the Treasury to mint and market gold, silver and platinum Australian legal tender coinage for the benefit of investors and collectors.

The Perth Mint is responsible for manufacturing and marketing most of Australia’s legal tender precious metal coins and is one of only a handful of world-renowned mints whose pure gold, silver and platinum legal tender coins are trusted without question. These coins include the world famous Australian Nugget gold coins, Australian Platinum Koala coins, and Australian Silver Kookaburra coins which are sought after by bullion investors worldwide. Overall, The Perth Mint currently produces over 30 minted gold and silver bars and coins in a range of weights and sizes.

The Mint and refinery also provide refining and other services to the gold industry and manufactures many coins related numismatic items for investors and coin collectors.

In 2003, The Perth Mint opened a state-of-the-art 8,400 square meter manufacturing facility in 2003, next door to its original limestone building. Together, these two buildings represent more than 100 years of minting excellence in Western Australia.

How to Store Gold with The Perth Mint Certificate Program?

The Perth Mint Certificate Program (PMCP) offers U.S. investors a unique range of precious metal storage facilities on internationally competitive terms.

When you purchase unallocated gold held at the Perth Mint there is no storage charge. You only pay the quoted metal value at the time of purchase. This means that the unallocated gold certificate program makes gold investing considerably cheaper than gold ETFs and most other forms of gold investments.

Since the Perth Mint is a working refinery and mint, it requires an operating inventory. Instead of borrowing cash or metal to finance this inventory, the Mint created a system of unallocated metal investment where clients with unallocated gold accounts get free metal storage and the Mint may use the customers’ investments to finance its inventory.

In an unallocated gold account, you own an undivided interest in The Perth Mint’s pool of unallocated gold, and you are an owner in common with other unallocated clients. As all the unallocated gold is identical, in other words fungible, the metal is stored in the unsegregated storage. In unallocated gold certificates, there is 100% gold backing.

Perth Mint unallocated gold stored for clients is fully insured, and the insurance is underwritten by Lloyds of London syndicates.