$20 Fine Silver Coin - Canadian Dinosaurs - Xenoceratops Foremostensis - Mintage: 8,500 (2014)

Though the current Canadian landscape is geologically recent, the landmass has teemed with life for hundreds of millions of years. Clues to the life story of our land and the creatures that once lived here lie encased in rock and earth. Solving the mystery of how they lived and died has captivated Canadian researchers and laypeople alike for more than a century.

In 2012, a team of Canadian palaeontologists rediscovered a series of fossils collected in 1958 from Alberta's Foremost Formation, near the village of Foremost. These samples led researchers to identify not only a new species of dinosaur, but the oldest species of its kind yet discovered in Canada. Ryan and Evans also collected an additional fragmentary skull of the Xenoceratops from just north of Foremost that confirmed aspects of its reconstruction.

Xenoceratops foremostensis was a massive plant-eating centrosaurine ceratopsid thought to have emerged about 78 million years ago. Researchers have deduced that it was about the size of a rhinoceros at maturity and weighed about 2 tons. The huge frill on the back of the skull sported large spikes. It also had large horns over its eyes and a beak-like mouth.

The discovery of Xenoceratops is notable because early ceratopsid fossils remain relatively scarce. The original fossil samples are currently housed at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Special features:
•   Third in the series of silver coins featuring finely engraved, lifelike representations of prehistoric animals discovered in Canada. This species of dinosaur is not only the newest species discovered in Canada but the oldest species of its kind discovered in Canada.
•   The Xenoceratops foremostensis will remind you most of the well-known Triceratops dinosaur.
•   Xenoceratops foremostensis has been carefully detailed with multiple frostings that accent its body features and markings.
•   Researchers believe this dinosaur was about the size of a rhinoceros and weighed nearly 2 tons!
•   A beautiful addition to any collection featuring Canadiana, Canadian natural history, Canadian prehistory, or Canadian wildlife.
•   Your coin is GST/HST exempt with a limited worldwide mintage.

Design:
Your coin features an interpretation of how Xenoceratops may have looked. Viewed from the front on its right side, this full-body portrait presents some of Xenoceratops' most striking features, including its beak-like mouth, vast spiky skull frill, horns, large muscular body, and relatively short legs. It walks on four-clawed feet across a smooth, stony land mass, its small right eye cast upon the viewer. This artist's depiction presents an interpretation of possible tonal variations on a pebble-textured hide—all rendered in dimensional detail by Royal Canadian Mint engravers using multiple finishes and expert engraving techniques. The scientific accuracy of the depiction was verified by palaeontologists Dr. Michael Ryan and Dr. David Evans who discovered and described Xenoceratops in 2012.

Order yours today!