German coin producer MCI-Mint has added to its range of prehistoric animal coins with a new debut featuring the most well-known dinosaur in the world, Tyrannosaurus Rex. Over the last few years, MCI have expanded their range but in a different way to most other producers. Instead of releasing lots of different subjects, MCI pick a subject and do variations on the theme. The Smilodon for example, came in versions showing an adult animal, a young animal, an adult with a juvenile, a pair of juveniles, and an adult with a pair of juveniles. Weights include 1oz, 3oz, 4oz, 10oz, 1kg and 3kg, although each design was often only available in a single weight. All of the coins included what MCI call their Real Eye Effect, a coloured glass ‘eye’ insert. The follow-on Mammoth coin was similarly varied.

This is the second theropod dinosaur coin, the first being a very nice Spinosaurus coin that was released in antiqued 1oz form last year and for which we did an AgAuShoot a while later. That coin didn’t have an insert of any kind, but this new Tyrannosaurus Rex coin carries on with the Real-Eye effect by having an eye picked out in glass. The glass chosen is blue, an unusual one for us, not really the right choice for the animal, but the whole design works well enough, depicting the huge 1.5m head of this incredible predator from an angle we’ve not seen before. Issued for Burkina Faso, something we’ll increasingly see from MCI, this 1oz antique-finish piece has a mintage of just 500 pieces, which given the phenomenal popularity of the T-Rex, might mean a quick sell-out for this one. No news yet on variations of this design, but T-Rex is always going to be a hot coin subject, so don’t be surprised if that turns out to be case.

Available mid next month for just under €100, the coin comes boxed and in a coloured shipper.

TYRANNOSAURUS REX

Tyrannosaurus meaning “tyrant lizard”, from the Ancient Greek tyrannos, “tyrant”, and sauros, “lizard” is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex (rex meaning “king” in Latin), commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is one of the most well-represented of the large theropods. Tyrannosaurus lived throughout what is now western North America, on what was then an island continent known as Laramidia. Tyrannosaurus had a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids. Fossils are found in a variety of rock formations dating to the Maastrichtian age of the upper Cretaceous Period, 68 to 66 million years ago. It was the last known member of the tyrannosaurids, and among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail. Relative to its large and powerful hind limbs, Tyrannosaurus fore limbs were short but unusually powerful for their size and had two clawed digits. The most complete specimen measures up to 12.3 m (40 ft) in length, up to 4 meters (13 ft) tall at the hips, and up to 6.8 metric tons (7.5 short tons) in weight. Although other theropods rivaled or exceeded Tyrannosaurus rex in size, it is still among the largest known land predators and is estimated to have exerted the largest bite force among all terrestrial animals. By far the largest carnivore in its environment, Tyrannosaurus rex was most likely an apex predator, preying upon hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, and possibly sauropods. Some experts, however, have suggested the dinosaur was primarily a scavenger. The question of whether Tyrannosaurus was an apex predator or a pure scavenger was among the longest ongoing debates in paleontology. It is accepted now that Tyrannosaurus rex acted as a predator, and scavenged as modern mammalian and avian predators do.

More than 50 specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons. Soft tissue and proteins have been reported in at least one of these specimens. The abundance of fossil material has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including its life history and biomechanics. The feeding habits, physiology and potential speed of Tyrannosaurus rex are a few subjects of debate. Its taxonomy is also controversial, as some scientists consider Tarbosaurus bataar from Asia to be a second Tyrannosaurus species while others maintain Tarbosaurus is a separate genus. Several other genera of North American tyrannosaurids have also been synonymized with Tyrannosaurus.  Source: Wikipedia

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SPECIFICATION

DENOMINATION COMPOSITION WEIGHT DIAMETER FINISH MINTAGE BOX / COA
1,000 FRANCS CFA 0.999 SILVER 31.1 g 38.61 mm ANTIQUE 500 YES / YES