Australia has unveiled the world’s largest gold coin, weighing a massive 1,000 kg, to mark the visit of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Perth Mint produced it in time for the Queen’s visit to Western Australia for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting.

The coin has a kangaroo on one side and the Queen’s profile on the other. It is nearly 80 cm in diameter and 12 cm thick.

The world-renowned Franklin Mint has unveiled a rare and unprecedented work of artistry – the Taj Mahal Gold Coin – at their new Manhattan showroom.

Minted and designed by the world-renowned Monnaie de Paris, only 29 of these coins will ever be produced.

The coin is not only the first and only French coin comprised of over 2 lbs. of solid gold, but it is the world’s first coin to include 68 hand-set Cartier diamonds.

The world’s largest gold coin, a Maple Leaf, sold for 3.27 million euros ($4.02 million) at the Dorotheum auction house on Friday in Vienna.

The coin – measuring 53 centimetres in diameter and weighing 100 kilograms – was bought by Spanish precious metals firm Oro Direct.

The Maple Leaf coin, which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records and carries a face value of one million Canadian dollars, was minted in 2007.

On June 25, 2010, the world’s largest gold coin, a 2007 Canadian $ 1,000.000 Maple Leaf is to be auctioned at Vienna’s Dorotheum.

This monetary item is twenty inches (53 cm) in diameter and one inch thick. It’s made of 99.999 percent gold bullion and weighs 220 pounds (100 kilograms).

The world record-breaking coin, which is also listed in the current edition of the Guinness Book of Records, bears the image of Elisabeth II.

Department store Selfridges is encouraging shoppers to buy their extremely expensive £1,000 ($1,500) Easter eggs in the hope they will gain value.

How? Because each of these exorbitantly priced eggs will contain a gold coin which the store considers to be of good investment value.

A Selfridges spokesman said: “According to the financial institution Swiss bank UBS, demand for gold will double this year compared to 2007”