20 Euro Tertiary-Live on the ground silver coin

On September 10, The Ausria Mint has released new coin for their Prehistoric Life: Back from the Dead series, a 20 Euro Tertiary-Live on the ground silver proof coin. The .900 fine silver show fearsome sabre-toothed tiger as the main design and legal tender in Austria.

Developed in collaboration with the Natural History Museum Vienna, where the fossilised remains of the dinosaurs and early mammals featured on the coins are currently on display, the series spans the last quarter of a billion years in our planet's existence.

On the obverse we see the Sabretooth Tiger as well as a detailed representation of its skull containing its trademark ‘sabre’ teeth. Stylized trees shown on the screen background stand for the habitat land. A timeline in the lower side of the face is the beginning of the Tertiary with "66 million" and end with "2.6 million" years before our time.

On the reverse, an action scene shows a sabre-toothed cat attacking a startled chalicotherium, an odd-looking herbivore with long-clawed forelimbs. Both sides show the swampy natural habitat common in a period when the climate cooled to the extent that the first glacier appeared at the South Pole about 30 million years ago.

Technical Specifications:
Denomination: 20 Euro
Metal: .900 Fine Silver
Diameter: 34.00 mm
Fine Weight: 18.00 g
Total Weight: 20.00 g
Finish: Proof
Mintage: 50,000
Designer: Mag. Helmut Andexlinger
Issue Price: € 45.00

The 20 Euro Tertiary-Live on the ground silver coin comes in a case complete with a numbered certificate of authenticity and protective slipcase. You can order the Prehistoric Life: Back from the Dead series coin at The Austrian Mint website www.muenzeoesterreich.at.