One of the series that Germania Mint created to help expertly build up their Germania World range of silver, and occasionally gold, bullion (which you can see in our coin-packed Summary Bullion Profile of the entire bullion part), Mythical Forest was their take on the Canadian Maple Leaf style. It was expanded to include the four main deciduous trees in Northern European forests, Oak, Chestnut, Linden, and Beech, so we got original designs annually, for a change. The four-issue series ended in 2023, but it’s back for a one-off release featuring the most important element of flora in all of Norse mythology – Yggdrasil.

Yggdrasil is central to Norse mythology, being a tree that connects, through its roots, to the nine realms, including the Underworld, Asgard (the realm of the gods), and Midgard, the home of humanity. It’s represented as a giant ash tree, and amongst its branches live a menagerie of creatures, like the dragon Níðhöggr, who gnaws at the roots, the messenger squirrel Ratatoskr, the hawk Veðrfölnir, and the stags Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór, and various eagles.

The coin depicts the tree, lush with growth, and with a huge snaking root system. Within the roots, you can just make out the dragon, Níðhöggr. The background field has that secure guilloche pattern that’s so popular in the current bullion world, and the name and composition are inscribed in the border. That superb bicephalous eagle sits on the obverse, which is common to many of Germania Mint’s ranges. A gorgeous design. The bullion coin has a mintage of 4,000 pieces, and comes encapsulated, and with a certificate.

Accompanying the bullion coin are four coloured variants, each with a mintage capped at just 400 units. The metallic colour is chosen to represent the four seasons, and the colour choices are perfect. The images don’t seem to do full justice to the colour, so we’ve embedded the mint’s videos for you to check out. They really are lushly coloured, Each of these coins comes fully boxed, with a certificate of authenticity, and with the serial number engraved on the edge. All of these are available to order now. There are a couple of images of the bullion coin we did below, but we’ll add more shortly. Trying out a far better camera phone, but I may have to go back to the full frame camera for better ones.