We’ve covered many entrants in Numistrade’s African Ounce bullion coin range since we went live in 2013, but even back then, there had already been six issues since it debuted in 2008. The coin has become a firm annual fixture in the bullion calendar, and the 2026 has now launched, the nineteenth design to date. Actually, there was an extra issue in 2023 to mark the series 15th anniversary, but that was a reissue of the 2008 coin, and did not supplant the 2023 design.

The series has a fixed design layout, with the topographical map of Africa covering a large part of the reverse face, and a border with the title and composition, covering more. The big change each year is the animal depicted in the bottom left, which is one of the myriad creatures that inhabit Africa. For 2026, there’s a neat family scene of Spotted Hyena’s, the continent’s most numerous predator, and possibly its most successful. They’re highly social animals, and eat almost every part of their prey.

The obverse is the same one used by Numistrade for their other bullion releases, some of which, like the new Sporting Ounce range, and the Nautical Ounce, we’ve covered recently. The big addition here is a 1/12 oz silver bullion coin (about 2.6 grams), which we’ve seen on their other series, but joins this one for the first time. It has the same time-limited mintage (end of 2026) as the one-ounce silver coin, although the gold coins do have a mintage cap. All should be appearing at bullion dealers as the week progresses. Another neat addition to a popular bullion series.