Happy Wednesday, Stackers and Hivers!!! And thank you for letting me share my love of stacking silver coins.

A fun way to stack in silver is acquiring the current year release of bullion silver coins from the different World Mints as they are released.

These are the 2020 World Mint coins that I have shown in my blog so far:

I've had this government mint bullion coin for about a month now and was just waiting its turn to be shown!

I like the design of both the obverse and reverse of this coin with the Zodiac wheel depicted around the portrait in the obverse, which makes it specific to the subject matter of the series: the Lunar animals. I also prefer the depiction of the rat in this coin over the Perth Mint Lunar III mouse design.

There are six mints in Australian: The Melbourne Mint, Sydney Mint, Note Printing Australia, Perth Mint Certificate Program, Perth Mint, and the RoyalAustralian Mint. The Royal Australian Mint is the sole producer of all of Australia's circulating coins.

2020 1 oz Royal Australian Mint Year of the Rat
Silver Coin (BU)

Contains 1 Troy oz of .999 pure silver in Brilliant Uncirculated condition, Issued a face value of $1 (AUD) by Australia.

Obverse

Depicted on the obverse is the latest effigy of the Queen on Australian coins and is based on the Jody Clark design from 2015 created for the Royal Mint of England. Elizabeth II is shown in right-profile relief wearing the George IV State Diadem Crown on her head.

Also included in this design element is a lunar calendar wheel. You will notice that each of the 12 animals in the cycle is represented in the design of the wheel. At the very top of the wheel, indicating it is the animal represented for the year, is a small rat.

Reverse

In this design, the rat stands on a crescent moon shape with a lychee branch behind it. Inscriptions identify the design release of this lunar collection and the coin's weight, purity, and metal content.

About the Lunar Rat

The Year of the Rat is the first in the 12-year cycle of the Zodiac, also known as Shengxiao. The rat is considered a clever, perhaps even devious, animal. During the Great Race in which all animals were vying to arrive first to a meeting with the Jade Emperor, the rat used its cunning to its advantage.
As the rat came to a raging river, it knew it was too small to cross the river alone. The ox close behind, the rat waited and asked the ox for a ride across. It eventually hid on the oxs head near its ear and waited until just before the finish line to jump off the ox and scurry across as the first animal to officially arrive to the Jade Emperors meeting. It is said that this is why the Year of the Rat is first in the lunar cycle.

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