AUSTRALIA 2000 MILLENNIUM OLYMPIC PROOF COIN COLLECTION 16 Coin Silver and 8 Coin Gold Collections in Timber Presentation Case

Truly one of the most impressive Australian coin sets ever released.

Sydney played host in September and October 2000 to the world's biggest sporting spectaculars, the Olympic Games, declared "the best Games ever" by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch: "By the time they lit that enormous ‘River of Fire’ trail of fireworks from Stadium Australia to Sydney Harbour on Sunday, we all knew that these Millennium Olympic Games had been something special. Now and then this aching planet does come together, in ways that can move and surprise you."

It's hardly surprising then that collectibles of the Sydney 2000 games were in extremely strong demand, many discerning collectors wanted an heirloom that was solid and officially-produced to pass onto future generations. The Sydney 2000 Olympic coins have been the most enduring collectibles of the entire games, for these four reasons:

• They were officially produced by the Australian government;
• They were genuinely limited edition (unlike a lot of the Olympic pin sets being sold at the same time!) - just 3,000 of these Millennium sets were released.
• They were superb quality and had presentation to match;
• They were made from solid, pure Australian gold and silver - the total gold weight of the coins in this set comes to 2.57ozt, and there is 16 ozt in pure silver included.

Brilliant Design and Craftsmanship

The Millennium Olympic collection is clearly the highlight of the Sydney 2000 Olympic coin program - the coins obviously look fantastic, and the presentation shows a level of attention to design very seldom seen on mass-produced items from the modern day. The function of the drawer, the way the coins sit up in full view when on display, the hue of the timber all combines for a set that really needs to be seen in the flesh to be appreciated.

The leading furniture designer Glen Holst spent more than two years leading the development and construction of the presentation cases - each uses no less than forty-three meticulously fitted components, each hand-finished and crafted in beautiful Western Australian jarrah and she-oak. To ensure a complementary balance of colour between all the components, the timber for each box was hand-selected. It took six months to find exactly the right 'flitch' of jarrah that would provide uniform grain and colour throughout each of the 3,000 marquetry inlays of the presentation box lids. The she-oak components, including the inlay for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games logo, were all hand-sawn specially for this project.

When the lid is opened, the tray housing the twenty-four coins tilts upwards, this allows the coins to be displayed in full view. A recessed drawer is concealed below the tray, this features an ingenious locking system that prevents the  of the drawer from being accidental opened when the box lid is closed. There is also a special compartment below the tray that houses the Certificates of Authenticity for each of the individual coins.

The hard-bound presentation book included in a drawer concealed within the case is worth the purchase price alone, it captures a great deal of the spirit of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and is superb in design, photography and in the information it contains.

A Muted Initial Reception = Excellent Value for Today's Collector

Despite all of these strengths, it's surely fair to say that the reception of the Millennium Olympic Proof Coin Collection was certainly subdued, far less than what a set of this calibre deserved.

Although the gold, silver and bronze coins had been released gradually between late 1997 and the start of the games, the Millennium Olympic Proof Coin Collection wasn't released until just before the games had finished. Further to that dubious timing, the location chosen to announce the set to the world's coin collecting public was the World Money Fair in Basel, Switzerland - literally the opposite side of the world to the city where the Olympics were being held!

By the time the Millennium set was released, any collector that had even an outside interest in the series had already bought all the coins they wanted, as did members of the general public that had been caught up in the excitement of the Games atmosphere.

Many in the numismatic trade scratched their head when considering the Mint's strategy in all of this, however I have little doubt it was done to ensure that the MIllennium set didn't take too much demand away from the "standard" production runs of the gold and silver coins. Had the Millennium set been released any earlier, I have little doubt demand for it would have been incredibly strong (any collector with a heartbeat only needs to see it to be impressed with it), and it would've doubled in value on the secondary market, such would the interest in it have been.

As it stands, despite the fact that the price of gold has more than tripled since the coins were released, and the price of silver has appreciated more than four-fold, the Millennium Olympic Proof Coin Collection presently sells for less than it did a decade ago!

For anyone interested in building a collection of mementoes from major Australian events in the 20th century, this set is impossible to go past. It has a solid intrinsic value, has a tiny mintage and is a testament to Australian design.