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.
The coins are issued in different metals and qualities every 6 months, since their first issue in 2019. The Leopard is the third of the ferocious five to be featured on this series. They are the most mysterious and subtle of all the big cats, and their strength enables them to easily drag the body of a large kill onto a tree to protect the carcass from scavengers like hyenas. Their diet sometimes include fish as they are good swimmers.
Most leopards are light, golden coloured and covered in dark spots referred to as rosettes because of their shape. They are solitary animals; males and females only spend a brief time together while mating, and thereafter go their separate ways again leaving the female to raise the cubs on her own.
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.
 
Each reverse of the proof coins bears the design of two halves of the face of a leopard. 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 leopard 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 elusive leopard on the lid.