Indulge your need for speed! The world's greatest sports cars are captured in this 5 coin series from the Perth Mint!

Sometimes you just need to feel the wind in your hair as the scenery races by in  blur! If you've ever felt the need for speed, you know that nothing can satisfy it (or turn heads!) like a classic sports car. The Perth Mint of Australia has done the world's greatest coupes proud on these low mintage proofs! Each large (40.60 mm diameter), pure silver coin portrays a full-color image of a classic roadster in all its glory! Three meticulously engraved inset images display the fine details of each auto's dashboard, engine block, and wheels.

    • International Classic Sports Cars Complete 5 Coin Set

Please see the presentation lower on this page for more information about Tuvalu and its association with Australia.

Click here for all the coins in the International Classic Sports Cars program!

The Lamborghini Countach
The Lamborghini Countach is a mid-engined sports car produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini from 1974 to 1990. Its design both pioneered and popularized the wedge-shaped, sharply angled look popular in many high performance sports cars. The "cabin-forward" design concept, which pushes the passenger compartment forward in order to accommodate a larger engine, was also popularized by the Countach.

The unusual name of the car, "Countach", is actually an exclamation of astonishment in the local Piedmontese dialect of the Italian language - one that is usually offered by men upon seeing an extremely beautiful woman! Besides the name, virtually everything else about this car is remarkable - from its performance, to its price, to its (as you can see) futuristic look!

The Countach was styled by Marcello Gandini of the Bertone design studio, the same designer and studio that designed the radical Lamborghini Miura of the mid-1960s. He produced a quite striking design. The Countach shape was wide and very low to the ground (only 42.1 inches tall!), but not very long. Its angular and wedge-shaped body was made almost entirely of flat, trapezoidal panels. There were curves, notably the smoothly coke-bottle wing line, but the overall appearance was sharp.

The doors, a Countach trademark, were of a scissors design - hinged at the front with horizontal hinges, so that the doors lifted up and tilted forwards. This was partly for style, but just as much because the width of the car made conventional doors impossible to use in an even slightly confined space. Care needed to be taken, though, in opening the doors in an area with a low overhead!

The rear wheels were driven by a traditional Lamborghini V12 5 liter engine mounted longitudinally with a mid-engined configuration. For better weight distribution, the engine is pointed backwards: the output shaft is at the front, and the gearbox is in front of the engine, the driveshaft running back through the engine's sump to a differential at the rear. During its run the Countach was the fastest production (street legal) car in the world, with a top speed just under 200 mph!

Lamborghini employed a skin of aircraft-grade aluminum over a tubular space frame, as in a racing car. This was expensive to build but immensely strong and very light (in spite of its size, the car weighs only about 3,100 lbs!). The underbody tray is made of fiberglass.

A total of only 2,042 Lamborghini Countach cars were built during the auto's seventeen year run, of which 650 are the 25th Anniversary model pictured on the coin. With an average base price of about $100,000 each, these were not inexpensive cars!

Sports Car International magazine named the Lamborghini Countach number 3 on its list of the top sports cars of the 1970s, and number 10 on its list of the top sports cars of the 1980s!

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Technology Note
The Perth Mint of Australia employs its own proprietary colorization technology, in which the color is actually sealed on the coin. The vibrant hues and precise execution of the technology create a stunning, full-color portrait on each coin.

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Obverse
A full-color portrait of a Lamborghini Countach automobile. Inset images depict the wheel, dashboard, and engine of the car. The legend 1990 LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH identifies the classic coupe.

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Reverse
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England, in crowned profile facing right. This portrait, featuring Her Majesty wearing a tiara and pearl drop earrings, was executed by the sculptor Raphael Maklouf. The legend QUEEN ELIZABETH II, the date of issue and denomination also appear.

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Packaging
The coin is encapsulated inside a luxurious silver leatherette, clamshell-style presentation case, lined with black velvet and satin, and protected by a customized outer box. An individually-numbered certificate of authenticity is included.

The Island Nation of Tuvalu
Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbors are Kiribati, Samoa and Fiji. It is comprised of four reef islands and five true atolls. Its population of 11,992 makes it the third-least populated independent country in the world, with only Vatican City and Nauru having fewer inhabitants. It is also the second-smallest member by population of the United Nations. In terms of physical land size, at just 10 square miles Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the Vatican City, Monaco and Nauru.

The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesian people, who arrived about 3000 years go. The islands came under Great Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century. The Ellice Islands were administered by Britain as part of a protectorate from 1892 to 1916 and as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916 to 1974. In 1974 the Ellice Islanders voted for separate British dependency status as Tuvalu, separating from the Gilbert Islands which became Kiribati upon independence. Tuvalu became fully independent within The Commonwealth in 1978. with Queen Elizabeth II as titular head of state.

Because Tuvalu has few natural resources it has been dependent in recent years upon aid from larger, more developed nations, including Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The Perth Mint of Australia is officially commissioned by the government of Tuvalu to produce legal tender coinage for the island nation.