The big chunky Tyrannosaurus Rex appears in fossil form for PMC’s latest big chunky coin

A new addition to Precious Metal Collector’s growing range of Prehistoric-themed coins debuts today, and features a beast that pretty much everybody knows – Tyrannosaurus Rex. Like the ammonite coin that launched last week, this one has the animal in fossil form, although for obvious reasons, not a real one this time.

The animal is depicted as a skull only, a sensible choice given T. Rex has a very distinctive one, with its bone-crushing teeth (believed to be the strongest bite force of any terrestrial animal in history), and it’s set in the original rock matrix. The obverse has a close-up of part of the skull, also still shown embedded in rock.

There are two versions, with a combined mintage of 688 pieces. Our favourite is the antique finished one, with the coloured reverse face. It’s a little vibrant for me (PMC call it ‘pop-art’ colouring), but the antiquing suits it well. The other is fully gilded except for the reverse face skull. We like the contrast on the reverse face, but the obverse is less successful for me. Gilding tends to blur fine detail, while antiquing seems to enhance it. Overall though, it’s an impressive depiction.

One of the producers “Bi-Metal Reverse” coins, it has an ounce of silver in its composition, but still achieves 90x70mm in size, aided by the 14 oz of copper. The coin comes boxed with a Certificate of Authenticity, and is available to order now. An interesting release.