Perth Mint’s map-shaped silver dollar shows redback spider
- Published: Oct 12, 2015, 5 AM

Australia is home to dozens of vicious and venomous creatures like the redback spider. The Perth Mint showcases the awful arachnid on a new .999 fine silver dollar from a semi-annual series of map-shaped coins.
The 2015 issue is the eighth coin from the Australian Map Shaped coin series, which has featured two coins per year since 2012. The first four coins in the series sold out.
The second 2015 issue shows the spider on the coin’s reverse, designed by Ing Ing Jong, where it crawls across the face of a rock. The design includes the inscription REDBACK SPIDER, the Perth Mint’s P Mint mark, and 2015.
Characterized by a distinctive red stripe on the upper side of the abdomen, the adult redback has a spherical black body. Females are approximately 10 millimeters in length, compared to a 3- to 4-millimeter length for males.
Though a bite from the redback spider was once deadly, there have been no deaths recorded since an antivenom was made available in 1956.
The Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, the denomination, and 2015 appear on the coin’s obverse.
The coin weighs 31.135 grams and measures 40.6 millimeters across its widest point. With a mintage limit of 6,000 pieces, the coin retails for $109 Australian.
U.S. distributor Talisman Coins offers the coin for a fixed price in U.S. funds, $69.95.
To order from Talisman, visit its website.
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