Kangaroo

The Australian Kangaroo, a 2,205-pound gold coin which is recognized as the world’s biggest by Guinness World Records, made its U.S. debut outside the New York Stock Exchange on July 16.

Goodman Media International and Gregory FCA provided publicity for the event.

The Wall Street Journal headlined its story about the $45M coin, “A Gigantic Gold Coin Makes its Way to Wall Street” and assured readers that a thief was unlikely to cart it off.

“The coin—with Queen Elizabeth’s profile pressed onto one side and a mid-hop kangaroo on the other—is beyond the wiles of the average pickpocket,” reported the WSJ. “It measures nearly 32 inches in diameter and is almost 5 inches thick.”

The appearance was part of a push by The Perth Mint, Australia’s official bullion mint, to publicize its gold exchange-traded fund. Perth’s fund, with $133 million in ETFs backed by gold bars, currently lags far behind the U.S., which has $52 billion in its gold-backed fund.

Perth Mint says that its gold ETF is the only one backed by a government-guaranteed mint. “Given the maturity of the American market and the understanding by U.S. investors of the importance of holding gold in any wealth portfolio, it was an obvious choice to bring AAAU (the NYSE handle for the Perth Mint’s fund) to market in the world’s share trading capital,” said Perth Mint CEO Richard Hayes.

Australia is the second-largest producer of gold in the world, just behind China. The U.S. comes in fourth.