Share
| Quantity | Cash/Check | Credit Card | Paypal/Pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any Quantity | $132.75 | $138.33 | $140.05 |
Share
The Cameroon Mandrill Silver Proof Coin 2020 is the first in Scottsdale Mint's Cameroon Mandrill series, which are struck in .999 fine silver and are selectively colorized on their obverse and are proof standard.Mintage: 1,500 coins worldwide, one of the lowest in the Scottsdale Mint Africa Animals catalog.Every coin is housed in a mint issued capsule in a Scottsdale Mint display case with a Certificate of Authenticity.Issuer: Republic of Cameroon.
Obverse — The Mandrill
The obverse is a close-up of a mandrill's face, seen in right-profile relief, taking up the entire field of the coin, highlighting the animal's most prominent features: the long facial ridges, deep-set eyes, and thick fur surrounding the face.The colorization is selective, and places the mandrill's natural blue and red colors directly on the proof surface, bright electric blue along the facial ridges and bright red down the center of the muzzle, in keeping with the natural coloration of the animal in the wild.Cameroon's natural rainforest is represented as background of the mandrill's face. Inscription: “MANDRILL” (blue) at the left rim and metal weight and fineness at the right rim.
Reverse — Cameroon Coat of Arms
On the back it is adorned with the official Coat of Arms of the Republic of Cameroon, a shield with two crossed axes, split in three vertical bands like the national flag's green, red, and yellow.The middle portion of the shield features a map of the country of Cameroon, with the scales of justice placed on top of it. Arms, with the words: "REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN" curved at the top, "REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON" at the bottom of the shield, "2020" in the middle of the arms, and "500 FRANCS CFA" at the bottom of the arms — denomination and issuing authority on one face.
The mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) is the heaviest monkey in the world, reaching a weight of up to 37 kg in adults.It is a member of the Old World monkey family (Cercopithecidae), which contains 138 species in 24 genera, many of which are macaques, baboons and colobus monkeys. The mandrill is a species of the genus Mandrillus, which is distinct from baboons, but belongs to the genus Papio.The face of the mandrill is what makes it unique, and what makes it a collectible coin design.Adult male mandrills do not produce pigment to give them their deep blue and red coloring. It is derived from photonic nanostructures in the skin of the facial region: parallel arrays of nanoscale-spaced collagen fibers that reflect light at a specific wavelength to create a photonic colour effect, similar to that of iridescent butterfly wings.This gives it the greatest facial coloration of any land mammal.This colouring is proportional to the level of testosterone. The most saturated blues and reds are seen in the dominant alpha males, who are indicating to females that they are fit for breeding and to rival males that they are the alpha.Paler coloration of lower-ranking males. The colour of a male reduces if his rank within the society decreases, but increases if his rank increases. A face is a real expression of hierarchy.The largest social group that a mandrill ever lives in consists of hordes that have a population of more than 800 individuals, the biggest non-human primate group recorded.Their distribution is spread throughout the tropical rain forests of southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Congo.The mandrill is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and is facing threats of population decline from deforestation and commercial bushmeat hunting. The partnership with the authorities in Cameroon to have the mandrill put on legal tender is clearly linked to the conservation visibility of the coin.
Cameroon has been called by geographers and ecologists "Africa in Miniature", because the five distinct ecological zones of the continent are packed into one country – semi-arid savannah in the far north, a band of highland grasslands in the west, equatorial rainforest in the south, volcanic mountain terrain in the west-central (including Mount Cameroon, the highest peak in West Africa at 4,040m), Atlantic coastline in the south-west.There are different species of wildlife in each zone and the overall biodiversity in the country is one of the highest in Africa.The southern rainforest zone is a component of the Congo Basin forest complex, the second largest tropical rainforest on earth after the Amazon, the habitat of the mandrill.
This is a 500 Francs CFA denomination, or face value, and is denominated in the Central African CFA franc (XAF) which is the currency of Cameroon and five other Central African countries. The term “CFA” is an acronym for the Financial Community of Africa. Since 1948 the Central African CFA franc has been fixed to the Euro (previously the French franc) and is guaranteed by the Banque de France. It is the longest standing currency peg in the world.
The Cameroon Mandrill Silver Proof Coin 2020 is the first in Scottsdale Mint's Cameroon Mandrill series, which are struck in .999 fine silver and are selectively colorized on their obverse and are proof standard.Mintage: 1,500 coins worldwide, one of the lowest in the Scottsdale Mint Africa Animals catalog.Every coin is housed in a mint issued capsule in a Scottsdale Mint display case with a Certificate of Authenticity.Issuer: Republic of Cameroon.
Obverse — The Mandrill
The obverse is a close-up of a mandrill's face, seen in right-profile relief, taking up the entire field of the coin, highlighting the animal's most prominent features: the long facial ridges, deep-set eyes, and thick fur surrounding the face.The colorization is selective, and places the mandrill's natural blue and red colors directly on the proof surface, bright electric blue along the facial ridges and bright red down the center of the muzzle, in keeping with the natural coloration of the animal in the wild.Cameroon's natural rainforest is represented as background of the mandrill's face. Inscription: “MANDRILL” (blue) at the left rim and metal weight and fineness at the right rim.
Reverse — Cameroon Coat of Arms
On the back it is adorned with the official Coat of Arms of the Republic of Cameroon, a shield with two crossed axes, split in three vertical bands like the national flag's green, red, and yellow.The middle portion of the shield features a map of the country of Cameroon, with the scales of justice placed on top of it. Arms, with the words: "REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN" curved at the top, "REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON" at the bottom of the shield, "2020" in the middle of the arms, and "500 FRANCS CFA" at the bottom of the arms — denomination and issuing authority on one face.
The mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) is the heaviest monkey in the world, reaching a weight of up to 37 kg in adults.It is a member of the Old World monkey family (Cercopithecidae), which contains 138 species in 24 genera, many of which are macaques, baboons and colobus monkeys. The mandrill is a species of the genus Mandrillus, which is distinct from baboons, but belongs to the genus Papio.The face of the mandrill is what makes it unique, and what makes it a collectible coin design.Adult male mandrills do not produce pigment to give them their deep blue and red coloring. It is derived from photonic nanostructures in the skin of the facial region: parallel arrays of nanoscale-spaced collagen fibers that reflect light at a specific wavelength to create a photonic colour effect, similar to that of iridescent butterfly wings.This gives it the greatest facial coloration of any land mammal.This colouring is proportional to the level of testosterone. The most saturated blues and reds are seen in the dominant alpha males, who are indicating to females that they are fit for breeding and to rival males that they are the alpha.Paler coloration of lower-ranking males. The colour of a male reduces if his rank within the society decreases, but increases if his rank increases. A face is a real expression of hierarchy.The largest social group that a mandrill ever lives in consists of hordes that have a population of more than 800 individuals, the biggest non-human primate group recorded.Their distribution is spread throughout the tropical rain forests of southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Congo.The mandrill is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and is facing threats of population decline from deforestation and commercial bushmeat hunting. The partnership with the authorities in Cameroon to have the mandrill put on legal tender is clearly linked to the conservation visibility of the coin.
Cameroon has been called by geographers and ecologists "Africa in Miniature", because the five distinct ecological zones of the continent are packed into one country – semi-arid savannah in the far north, a band of highland grasslands in the west, equatorial rainforest in the south, volcanic mountain terrain in the west-central (including Mount Cameroon, the highest peak in West Africa at 4,040m), Atlantic coastline in the south-west.There are different species of wildlife in each zone and the overall biodiversity in the country is one of the highest in Africa.The southern rainforest zone is a component of the Congo Basin forest complex, the second largest tropical rainforest on earth after the Amazon, the habitat of the mandrill.
This is a 500 Francs CFA denomination, or face value, and is denominated in the Central African CFA franc (XAF) which is the currency of Cameroon and five other Central African countries. The term “CFA” is an acronym for the Financial Community of Africa. Since 1948 the Central African CFA franc has been fixed to the Euro (previously the French franc) and is guaranteed by the Banque de France. It is the longest standing currency peg in the world.
Affiliations
Copyright BOLD Precious Metals 2026
