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2012 Cougar Silver Coin Third in Canadian Wildlife Series
August 23, 2011 by Darrin Lee Unser · 6 Comments
The Royal Canadian Mint (http://www.mint.ca/) announced details for the 2012 Cougar silver bullion coin, the newest strike to be released as part of its Canadian Wildlife bullion coin series. As with the other issues in the series, the coin will feature a maximum mintage of 1,000,000 and will be composed of one-ounce of .9999 fine silver.
The 2012 Canadian Cougar silver coin is the third issue in the Canadian Wildlife bullion coin series - Click the Royal Canadian Mint's image of the coin to enlarge it
Information on the bullion Cougar silver coin was unveiled by Mint officials at the American Numismatic Association’s 2011 World’s Fair of Money® in Chicago, Illinois. Attendees of the event were among the first to see the design of the new strike along with that of the new 2011 "RCMP" (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) .99999 pure gold bullion coin.
"The Royal Canadian Mint is proud to continue offering the world’s investors an exciting variety of the world’s purest gold and silver bullion coins at a time when bullion demand remains at record levels," said Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint in reference to the two new coins.
"Issuing products which stand out in the competitive bullion industry has helped the Mint achieve a reputation as the source of the world’s purest and most innovative bullion coins and we are pleased that these new coins continue providing customers our trademark quality and purity."
Senior Canadian Mint Engraver William Woodruff designed the reverse of the 2012 Cougar silver coin which depicts the solitary cat with its front paws perched on the fallen branch of a tree. Its wide-open jaw shows the potentially dangerous teeth within. Over the top of the design is the inscription of "Canada" with "9999" and "Fine Silver 1 Oz Argent Pur" joining it around the bottom. The artist’s initials of "WW" are also shown.
The obverse of the coin shows the Susanna Blunt effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It will also include an inscription indicating the face value of the coin of CAD $5 and the date of 2012.
The 2012 Cougar silver coin marks the third of a total of six to be created by the Royal Canadian Mint for the Canadian Wildlife bullion coin series. The first to appear in the series was the 2011 Wolf Silver Coin which was followed by the 2011 Grizzly Silver Coin. The fourth strike will appear in 2012 with the remaining two to feature 2013 dates.
As previously mentioned, the coins are struck from one ounce of .9999 fine silver. They feature a diameter of 38 millimeters with a total weight of 31.1 grams.
Like the Royal Canadian Mint’s staple bullion coin, the Maple Leaf, these Cougar coins will be sold through the Mint’s network of bullion dealers at the same market rate as the Maple Leafs. They should be available beginning in September after the network starts receiving them from the Mint.
That is one ugly cougar coin
I second what George said. Ugly sums it up. Is that cougar on steriods? Is its mouth open or closed or what? I liked the wolf and the grizzly coins and I will collect this one since I want the whole series but, hey, this design is just plain BAD!
I think it’s a cross between a cougar and some kind of dinosaur (check out the feet)!
this is the reason why I stopped collecting Canadian coins. They just so badly designed. Newer Canadian coins are the ugly.
You guys have never seen a cougar in the wild, have you? I hunt in the canadian rockies, and I gotta tell you guys, this is what a cougar looks like. Some people talk about it’s back feet looking like a dinosaur, but go to google images, and look at pictures of even housecats where they are standing on their hind legs and they look exactly the same. Sorry to burst your bubble guys, but this is what a cougar looks like when attacking…..PS….if you see one in the wild in this pose, better take the safety off, just in case.
I think this coin was a mistake coin. I think they messed up the engraving and then tried to fix it without starting from scratch. As ugly as they are, you should buy them. Cover the lower jaw and you can see a normal smaller cougar head. I think the original was too small. They added logs and another body to make it bigger and cover mistakes. Just look at it.