Description
Travel back over 75 million years to Canada’s prehistoric past and discover one of Canada’s most recently discovered dinosaurs with this 2022 $20 fine silver coin featuring Mercury’s Horned Face, or Mercuriceratops Gemini. The fossilized skull design contrasts against a black rhodium plated texture representing the rock formation in Alberta’s Dinosaur Provincial Park where a key fossil fragment was found. The obverse also features rhodium plating behind the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt. Mintage limited to just 10,000. HST/GST exempt.
The unusual frill on this dinosaur may look scary, but it likely helped Mercuriceratops to attract a mate. Unveiled by paleontologists in 2014, this six-metre-long herbivore was described from near-identical skull fragments of two individuals—one recovered from Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta and the other from the Judith River Formation in Montana (United States)—hence the species name, gemini (“twin” in Latin). The genus name, Mercuriceratops, means “Mercury’s horned face.” It was named after Mercury, the Roman messenger to the gods, who is often depicted with wings on his helmet.
The unusual frill on this dinosaur may look scary, but it likely helped Mercuriceratops to attract a mate. Unveiled by paleontologists in 2014, this six-metre-long herbivore was described from near-identical skull fragments of two individuals—one recovered from Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta and the other from the Judith River Formation in Montana (United States)—hence the species name, gemini (“twin” in Latin). The genus name, Mercuriceratops, means “Mercury’s horned face.” It was named after Mercury, the Roman messenger to the gods, who is often depicted with wings on his helmet.