Gorgosaurus Libratus Reimagined

The Royal Canadian Mint is bringing a prehistoric predator to life on its most recent .9999-fine silver commemorative release. The 2009 discovery of a fossilized Gorgosaurus libratus unearthed in Alberta’s Dinosaur Provincial Park inspired the coin. The specimen also features new technology called double-dimension relief, which incorporates two minting technologies into one coin: super incuse and ultra high relief. 

The obverse depicts the Alberta dig site, with a deep trench struck in super incuse encircling the fossil. King Charles III’s effigy appears below the design, along with the details of the find. On the ultra-high-relief reverse, the fossil’s past comes to life with the young Gorgosaurus chasing down a Citipes elegans in the jungle. Dr. François Therrien, a paleontologist and curator of dinosaur paleoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, served as a consultant for the design and reviewed the obverse and reverse to verify their accuracy.

Available on the Royal Canadian Mint’s website for $1,299, the commemorative has a mintage of 647.

Gorgosaurus libratus

The Gorgosaurus libratus is a tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous period, which occurred between 76.5 and 73 million years ago. Measuring 26-30 feet in length and weighing 2-3 metric tons, the bipedal apex predator is well-represented in the fossil record, with dozens of specimens found, most of which are from the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta.

The 2009 find in Alberta was exceptional because it contained the dinosaur’s last meal preserved inside its stomach cavity. The discovery was the first piece of fossil evidence verifying that juvenile tyrannosaurs ate differently than adults.