American icon, the Bald Eagle, is brought to life in a striking high-relief silver coin pair by AllCollect

Through its use on the ultra-popular American Eagle bullion coins from the United States Mint, the Bald Eagle has become an icon in the numismatic world. There have been many different depictions over the last few years alone, from portraits to birds in flight and by various producers, but what AllCollect have produced here, in conjunction with the high-end Belgian engraver and medal maker, P. De Greef, is a striking, ultra-high relief pair of depictions.

Each of the two coins, issued for Ivory Coast, weigh in at five troy ounces and you can see where the metal has been employed. These have an extraordinary level of relief and look incredibly three-dimensional for coins. Both employ that darling of the coin world – antique finishing – but one employs yellow gold plating on the beak and eye, while the other uses white rhodium plating for the head. They are almost like the Helvetic Mints Swiss Wildlife series taken to an extreme.

These are all about the reverse face, so the obverse remains a simple one, depicting just the Ivory Coast national emblem and the issue details. We’d like to have seen the composition inscriptive placed here as well, away from the main attraction, but we’re nitpicking a little. At 60mm in diameter, there’s plenty of space to show off the birds, aided by the smooth edge and rimless design.

The presentation looks decent enough and there’s the obligatory Certificate of Authenticity enclosed. There will be 500 sets produced, but even so, the crafted nature of these means this isn’t a low end item. Expect to pay around €1,000/ for the set. Pricey of course, but this is no pair of bullion knock-offs and it would be ridiculous to make the comparison. A striking, beautiful release. They’re available to order now from several of our sponsors.

THE BALD EAGLE

The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus, from Greek hali “sea”, aiētos “eagle”, leuco “white”, cephalos “head”) is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla). Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.

The bald eagle is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which it swoops down and snatches from the water with its talons. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species, up to 4 m (13 ft) deep, 2.5 m (8.2 ft) wide, and 1 metric ton (1.1 short tons) in weight. Sexual maturity is attained at the age of four to five years.

Bald eagles are not actually bald; the name derives from an older meaning of “white headed”. The adult is mainly brown with a white head and tail. The sexes are identical in plumage, but females are about 25 percent larger than males. The beak is large and hooked. The plumage of the immature is brown.

The bald eagle is both the national bird and national animal of the United States of America. The bald eagle appears on its Seal. In the late 20th century it was on the brink of extirpation in the continental United States. Populations recovered and the species was removed from the U.S. federal government’s list of endangered species on July 12, 1995 and transferred to the list of threatened species. It was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the Lower 48 States on June 28, 2007. (Source: Wikipedia)