Submitted by aarAdmin on Fri, 05/01/2026 - 00:00
Gold is continuing to excite major auction interest in Australia with a 250-gram 99.99 pure bullion bar (lot 28) knocked down for $46,000 at Melbourne-based Leski Auctions coin and banknote sale on April 28-29.
The bar wasn’t the only gold to shine at the auction with six one-ounce ABC ingots (lots 22-27) also keenly sought after.
Lots 22 and 27 each sold for $5800 while the remainder brought individual prices of $5700.
It seems that anything with high gold content was there to be snapped up so historic and collectable gold coins also were in the firing line.
The highest auction price for these was a Sydney 2000 Olympic gold coin collection of eight coloured $100 gold proofs in a jarrah presentation case (lot 319) that went under the hammer for $15,500.
Four 1987 Welcome Stranger $100 Australian nugget gold bullion coins – each comprising one ounce of 0.9999 gold (lots 269-272) – individually sold for a pleasing $5800.
The first in the series that led to today’s kangaroos, the Welcome Stranger is the world’s largest alluvial gold nugget with a gross weight of almost 110 kilograms.
It was discovered in 1869 by Cornish miners John Deason and Richard Oates near Moliagul in Victoria and was so massive it had to be broken into three pieces to be weighed.
South African one-ounce gold Kruggerands, dating from 1978 to 1980 (lots 461-463) and featuring the famous prancing springbok, were another solid highlight, with the first selling for $5800 and the others respectively for $5400 and $5600.
Queen Victoria sovereigns, with Jubilee heads and St George on the reverse, always attract plenty of interest with lot 411, featuring two dated 1890 and one 1894, knocked down for $4000.
Likewise, Queen Victoria half sovereigns are equally popular and five dated 1893, 1899, 1903, 1905 and 1907 (lot 412) brought $3400.
The two-day auction also covered postcards, stamps and postal history and, of the 1159 lots on offer, 971 or 84 per cent sold.
