Now an old stalwart of the annual bullion coin release calendar, the Somali Elephant, also called the African Wildlife, is rapidly closing in on its 20th anniversary. First appearing in 2004, the coin features a depiction of an elephant in various poses and has seen some fine designs over the years. However, recent years have exhibited a relative lack of variety in the artwork used, to the stage than for one issue they actually just mirror-reversed an earlier design.

Fortunately, no such qualms for the 2021 coin, which has stepped up a gear, in my opinion. The image of the elephant looking out of the coin, extending over the border, is one of the best we’ve seen for some years and hopefully heralds a more adventurous design ethos moving forward. The obverse design – the emblem of Somalia – is the same common one that’s been used for years now.

There’s a core 1oz silver and a 1oz gold coin in the range, both at 0.9999 fineness and with open mintages, but also a whole range of other sizes, right down to a 0.5 gram minigold and up to a 1 kg silver. There will likely be the usual range of proof and modified coins as well. I think it’s about time we brought back our now deprecated guide to this series, but it’s one we’ve always had issues getting decent high-resolution images of. We’ll try again. Available to order now, a terrific new design in a series that has been showing some aesthetic stagnation over the last few years.