While most of Europe is devoid of formidable apex predators today, that certainly wasn’t the case for our ancestors, who had to deal with an impressive variety of capable predators. Chief amongst those was Panthera spelaea, more commonly known as the Cave Lion. Ranging across Northern Europe and as far east as NW North America (which was connected by a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia for many periods), they existed from around 700,000 years ago, finally going extinct about 13,000 years ago.

These were powerful animals, ranging up to 2.9 metres in length, and standing up to 1.5 metres tall at the shoulder. Weights may have hit over 500 kg, and they were active hunters. Prey included the expected reindeer, horses, aurochs, and mammoths, but they also took other predators, including the equally formidable Cave Bear. It was no picnic for these big cats, however, having to compete with the bears, sabertooth cats, European leopards, Cave Hyenas, and perhaps most deadly of all, the various species of wolves. They were also known to early hominids, sometimes appearing in cave art. They likely went extinct because of the rapid change in the environment which caused the collapse of the mammoth steppe ecosystem, leading to the end of many large terrestrial animal species.

It’s a great choice of a subject to kick off Germania Mint’s latest foray into coins, although this is a coin issued for Liberia, so more in the same vein as their brightly coloured ‘Representative of the Species’ range, produced in conjunction with the Mint of Poland, than with the Germania World concept. This series is called ‘Megafauna’ and will feature some of the giant animals that roamed this earth during the Pleistocene Epoch, which also saw the rise of early humans, often ‘a light snack’ to the many giant predators alive at the time.

The range is one of the more extensive that Germania Mint has released, with three silver, and two gold variants on offer. The big one is a 2oz high-relief silver coin, carrying unique artwork compared to the others. Actually, that isn’t strictly true, as, like Lady Germania for example, it features a more expansive view of the same scene, which gives us a different look, but one clearly part of the same release. Here, we get a pair of Cave Lion’s facing off for dominance in a mountainous forested setting, one of them clearly gaining the upper hand. The foreground is coloured. The obverse is neat, with a Cave Lion skull in the centre, under which are six footprints, suggesting a six-coin series. The first of them, the lions, is coloured, and we suspect that will move anti-clockwise for every future release.

The other four variants depict a closer look at the dominant lion. At a more affordable level we have the ‘Oblivion Edition’, a 1oz BU coin, with an antique finish, which is highlighted on the reverse face with UV-sensitive colouring. The crescent ring, with the lions paws overhanging, is a terrific way to handle the crop. Like the 2oz coin, this one comes boxed, unlike the standard 1oz bullion version, that is supplied encapsulated, although also with a certificate of authenticity. The two gold coins, a 1oz and a 1/10oz, come mounted in the credit-card style ‘safepack’, which are attractively themed. A great debut, all versions should be available to order now.

As with the recent Witchcraft: Herbalist coin, we’ve done some photos of our own of four of the different coins, and they look very nice in hand indeed. All those below are what we did here, although I’m still not totally satisfied with the end results yet, as I think I need to get some better lighting sources, like a Smallrig, for example, and maybe have a go at painting the 3d printed model props. The base bullion image came out well, and the smaller antiqued coin (although my UV torch is kaput, so no colour), but some of the close-ups of the 2oz, and the gold, have not come out as well as I’d hoped. I will revisit them when I get some lights. In the meantime, enjoy.