Description

A followup to 2021’s Reaper of Death! Mercury’s Horned Face or Mercuriceratops gemini is the featured star of our second Discovering Dinosaurs coin, and the first things you’ll notice about this ceratopsid are the bony, wing-like protrusions on its head. Engraved on the coin’s reverse, its skull fossil is especially striking against the black rhodium-plated “rock” background, which pays tribute to the discovery that yielded another piece of Canada’s prehistoric past.

Coin #2: Meet a relative of Triceratops.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• BY POPULAR DEMAND! Imagine the excitement of unearthing a new prehistoric species! The followup to 2021’s sold-out Reaper of Death coin, the second Discovering Dinosaurs coin places you in the field and at the site of another discovery.
• RHODIUM PLATING! The black rhodium background represents the hidden or unknown past. This dark design element keeps the focus on the engraved fossils that have helped paleontologists piece together the story of prehistoric Canada.
• “NEW” DINOSAUR! Like the tyrannosaur on the first coin, this horned dinosaur is a relative “newcomer”—the 76-million-year-old Mercuriceratops was unveiled in 2014 and has never appeared on a coin until now.
• SCIENTIFICALLY VERIFIED! The fossil depicted on your coin has been verified for scientific accuracy by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
• ENGRAVED TEXTURE! Beneath the rhodium plating on your coin’s reverse, the engraved texture represents the thrill of discovery: it resembles the rock formation in Alberta’s Dinosaur Provincial Park, where a Mercuriceratops skull fragment was found.
• FOR DINO LOVERS OF ALL AGES! Dinosaurs are a popular theme with collectors and Canadians of all ages. They’re also an important part of Canada’s natural heritage.
• INCLUDES SERIALIZED CERTIFICATE! The Royal Canadian Mint certifies all of its collector coins.
• NO GST/HST 

Specifications

• No.203129
• Mintage  10,000
• Composition  99.99% pure silver with selective rhodium plating
• Finish  matte proof
• Weight (g)  31.39
• Diameter (mm)  38
• Edge  serrated
• Certificate  serialized
• Face value  20 dollars
• Artist  Julius Csotonyi (reverse), Susanna Blunt (obverse)

DESIGN

Designed by Canadian paleoartist Julius Csotonyi, the coin’s reverse features the fossilized skull of Mercuriceratops gemini, a recently discovered horned dinosaur species. Beneath the black rhodium plating, the engraved texture represents 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.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

The Artist:

“It’s always a thrill to illustrate the newest additions to Canada’s amazing diversity of ceratopsian (horned) dinosaurs, whose uniquely shaped neck shields functioned as visual signals. For Mercuriceratops, the challenge was to accurately portray the weird squamosal skull bone (resembling the mythical winged helmet of Mercury) while creatively rotating the skull so that the elongated head could fit within the circular rim of the coin!”

– Julius Csotonyi, Paleoartist

The Expert:

“Mercuriceratops is an example of a dinosaur species that’s known from a single bone only. Species of several groups of dinosaurs, like horned dinosaurs and duckbilled dinosaurs, are all very similar to each other and can often only be distinguished based on differences on one or a few bones. For example, duckbilled dinosaur species often only differ based on the shape of their crest. In horned dinosaurs, it’s often the shape of the bones forming the frill (shield behind the head) that allows paleontologists to recognize different species. In the case of Mercuriceratops, paleontologists found a bone of the frill that was unlike any that had ever been found for any other species. That’s how they knew they were dealing with a brand new species, even though they knew nothing else about the rest of the body.”

– Dr. François Therrien, Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology

PACKAGING

Your coin is individually encapsulated and presented in a Royal Canadian Mint-branded clamshell with a black beauty box.