The Cretaceous extinction event that ended the reign of the dinosaurs is fertile inspiration for Numiscollect’s latest silver coin

Mass extinctions are short geological periods in which a large percentage of the Earth’s biodiversity disappears, even down to microbial life. Our world has experienced at least five such events, the third of which, occurring at the end of the Permian era around 252 million years ago, wiped out so much life that over half of Earth’s biodiversity was wiped out, and it picked up the name ‘The Great Dying’.

Numiscollect’s latest coin focuses on the fifth, called the Cretaceous-Palaeogene Extinction, and the most widely known of them all. The reason for this is simple – it’s the one that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, wiping out all the non-avian species, and setting the stage for the rise of mammals. The cause was likely a 10km wide asteroid that impacted in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Yucatán Peninsula, where there remains evidence of the crater formed by the impact.

The reverse of this smartminted, antique-finished coin, depicts that impact, with asteroid fragments burning up in the sky, while a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a pair of sauropods (likely Alamosaurus), look on. Some Pteranodons are airborne, although likely not for long! It’s a terrific scene, bringing the early stages of the event to life. The dinosaur anatomy looks good, and T. Rex is suitably dominant.

The obverse is fantastic, with a striking depiction of a T. Rex skeleton (it looks like ‘Sue’). Other fossils are a Stegosaurian (which likely were already extinct by the time of the impact), a sauropod, a Triceratops, a raptor, a Pteranodon, and some ammonites. All died out in the event. They all sit in a stylised museum setting. The T. Rex skeleton here looks sublime, missing only its sternal plate.

A superb coin, it’s up there with Germania Mint’s ‘Impact Moments’ release, which we were fortunate to photograph for one of our AgAuShoots, as being amongst the best in this genre, one I absolutely love, so there is some bias here… Available to order now, just 555 of these two-ounce coins will be minted.