2019- AFRICAN BIG FIVE by the South African Mint The African Big Five are a popular subject on coins and foils. Considered the five most dangerous animals on the continent for hunting on foot, each of them stand out in their environment, even the herbivores. The Lion, Leopard, Rhinoceros, Elephant, and Cape Buffalo are all quite capable of killing humans and frequently do. The Cape Buffalo, in particular, seems to have a mean streak a mile wide. The Big Five bullion coin programme was meant to be a simple, but quite intense one. Starting with [...]

LIMITED SILVER BULLION SERIES by Scottsdale Mint One of the most prolific and inventive producers of silver and gold bullion coins today, Scottsdale Mint release a wide range of such coins, mostly with a relatively restricted mintage, and most with a design that changes for every issue. Keeping up with the various series and individual issues is a task in itself, so we've put together this overview of the output of legal tender bullion coins from the last few years. Now, this isn't a full on Bullion Coin Profile that we do elsewhere, and [...]

WORLD'S WILDLIFE (2019) by Emporium Hamburg There's certainly been an uptick in the number of wildlife-themed bullion series issued for African nations over the last decade. Everything from prehistoric life to all the ecosystems of the world today. Emporium Hamburg have been at the forefriont of that with their hugely popular Somali Elephant (African Ounce) bullion range that's well into double figure releases now, and more recent offerings like the neat Prehistoric Life. In 2019 they added World's Wildlife to the mix, a series issued for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The aim here [...]

2019-2022 GIANTS OF THE ICE AGE by Auragentum While there's always a dinosaur coin series (or two) in progress at any one time, it's extremely rare to see coins featuring life that existed after their extinction some 65 million years ago. That's a shame, as there are some incredible animals over the period. An especially fascinating time was the Pleistocene, an era which saw large megafauna related to modern species, that interacted with many of our own forebears, back to the Neanderthals. German dealer Auragentum launched a bullion coin series in 2019 that is [...]

2020-23 PREHISTORIC LIFE by Emporium Hamburg Never let it be said that we don't love a good dinosaur coin here, and that goes double for a keenly priced bullion coin. One of Emporium Hamburg's ranges, alongside the hugely popular Somali Elephant and others, Prehistoric Life debuted in 2020 with, of course, a coin depicting that biggest of dino stars, Tyrannosaurus Rex. The coin looked good, although like many bullion series, early renders were a little crude. Having seen the coin in hand, it's actually a very nice piece. The design, on this and subsequent issues, [...]

2020-2021 PREDATORS: EXTINCT by AllCollect An interesting, if pricey addition to the limited mintage silver bullion market, AllCollect’s ‘Predator’ series was an eclectic mix of subjects from the natural world, brought to life with a mix of finishes on the same face. As you know, we love the prehistoric world here, so this newer companion series is off to a flying start, It's great to see some real effort put into each design, as well as the eschewing of all the usual subjects for some rarer ones. Sure, there’s a Spinosaurus and a Megalodon, but there’s [...]

MANDALA WILDLIFE (2018) by APMEX With the trend for different designs on bullion coins continuing apace, accelerated perhaps by the rising price of precious metals as we write, we're seeing a variety on offer that is greater than ever. Best of all, there is a greater appetite for risk, with styles and subjects that would normally be considered too out of the mainstream, getting a shot. On of those is the APMEX-distributed Mandala Wildlife. Dipping it's toes into both the wildlife and the cultural genres, the series takes a simple depiction of, to date [...]

2019+ PREDATORS by AllCollect Not a name you would traditionally expect in the bullion coin market, AllCollect is a European producer known for its more exotic style, employing unusual techniques for its issues. They're particularly known for their minigold, huge art issues, and as one of the first to enter the now burgeoning modified bullion coin market, with their pretty 'Golden Enigma' series. Obviously, their foray into bullion was going to be a bit different. At it's core, 'Predators' doesn't stray far from the formula used by others in recent years. One ounce of fine [...]

2016+ CHISELLED EDGE ANCIENTS by Scottsdale Mint While we often see new and unusual subjects on modern bullion coins, we don't often see something different in the format sense. In 2016, Scottsdale Mint debuted the first of its new Egyptian Relics series. These were quite unlike anything else on the legal tender market. Available initially only in a five-ounce format, they keep a diameter similar to a standard one ounce coin, choosing to employ all the extra weight on increasing the thickness. There's nothing unusual in that, of course, but instead of a standard bound [...]

2015+ CONGO SILVERBACK GORILLA by Scottsdale Mint Since 2015, US based bullion producer Scottsdale Mint has greatly increased its selection of low-run bullion coins, particularly those struck in silver. At the time of writing (04/19), the mint has just come off a bumper year of new issues, with multiple single releases, as well as new programmes, including the eight-coin Caribbean EC8. Nature coins have always been popular in this market - witness the Perth Mint's iconic range - and the addition of lower mintage designs has helped boost the overall market to what it [...]