Description
Dinosaurs continue to capture our most vivid imagination, and few animals of prehistoric times are more fascinating than the Tyrannosaurs. 12 million years before the Tyrannosaurus Rex, one of its great ancestors roamed what is now Alberta. This 2021 $20 fine silver coin features the imposing fossilized skull and jaws of the Thanatotheristes Degrootorum, or “Reaper of Death”, a species of tyrannosaur only presented to the world in 2020. The coin weighs one ounce of pure silver and has a mintage limited to just 7,500. HST/GST exempt.
The Design:
This coin was designed by Paleoartist Julius Csotonyi, who was the first to illustrate Thanatotheristes Degrootorum. Black rhodium plating around the dinosaur skull gives the image a hint of the sense of danger and trepidation that must have been felt by huge carnivore’s prey. Beneath the black rhodium plating, the engraved rock texture represents the formation in which the fossil fragments were found. The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.
Did You Know?
At approx. 79.5 million years old, Thanatotheristes Degrootorum is one of the oldest known tyrannosaurids – it even pre-dates the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex by 12 million years.
The imposing meat eater on this coin was identified thanks to fossil fragments found in 2008 by a local farmer and his wife while walking along the Bow River in Alberta. And by comparing the fossils to those of other known tyrannosaurs, experts say the toothy Thanatotheristes would have been about eight metres (26 feet) long.
