The African Cape Buffalo is the last of the animals featured on this popular Big 5 coin series since its debut in 2019. The South African Mint celebrates Africa’s precious wildlife by embodying the strength and beauty of the Big Five in this series of legal tender coins.
African Buffalo are sociable animals with herds of up to several hundred individuals often observed. These herds might splinter into smaller units in times of drought.
Primarily preyed upon by lions, when a herd member is attacked, other Buffalos will rush to its defence. Together a number of buffalo are more than capable to ward off an attack by an entire pride of lions. A wounded buffalo bull is regarded as most dangerous by hunters, which is one of the main reasons why this animal is included into the big five. This characteristic is the origin of many hunting adventures, myths and legends.
The “Big Five” term originated when big game hunters visited the shores of Africa to shoot for trophies, and locals warned them about the five most dangerous animals in Africa: the Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Rhino and Buffalo.
The obverse features a breath-taking design of the Cape buffalo, which fills up much of the surface area of the coin. The words ‘South Africa’, ‘Big 5 2021’ appear below the image, with the national coat-of-arms in the centre signifying its legal tender status.
 
Each reverse of the proof coins bears the design of two halves of the face of a Cape buffalo. When placed together, the reverses form a full face. The set is packaged in a revolutionary double capsule which houses the coins close enough to each other to form a full buffalo face, and wide enough apart that the coins remain pristine and do not touch.
All the sets in this series are packaged in a beautiful lacquered finished wooden box bearing a digital print of the unforgivable Buffalo on the lid.