Pobjoy Mint are delighted to announce the release of the fourth and penultimate coin in a series of five coins depicting Sierra Leone’s “The Wild 5” animals featuring the Baboon.
Issued on behalf of Sierra Leone, these new coins are being produced in magnificent High Relief which really shows the detail of the head of the Baboon design and illustrates the appeal of these animals.
The fourth coin in the series features the world’s largest monkey – the Baboon. There are five species of Baboon scattered across various habitats throughout the world, with species largely inhabiting areas of open woodland and savannah. They range in size and weight depending on species, with the largest reaching around 40kg in weight and 47cm in height.
Baboons are noisy and sociable primates who tend to live in groups of around 50 individuals, although groups of up to 300 are not unknown. This particular primate has a range of different vocalisations for communicating with each other, with over 30 distinct vocalisations including grunts and screams which are used in addition to a plethora of non-vocal gestures such as shrugging and lip smacking. They exhibit many behavioural traits that are considered to be ‘human-like’ and have co-existed with human ancestors for many millions of years. The oldest baboon fossil is a skull found in South Africa that is thought to be two million years old.
Sub-Saharan Africa provides the most incredible opportunities for wildlife sightings, with an extremely varied mixture of animals across the continent. With such diversity of wildlife, Africa holds the titles for the biggest animals, the most dangerous animals, the fastest animals, the strongest animals, the most elusive animals, and so on. Therefore, it seems only right to depict some more of these iconic animals on a brand new five coin series.
The coin has been produced in magnificent High Relief in 2oz Proof Fine Silver. The design features the head of a Baboon in relief with the word “BABOON” whilst the obverse of the coin shows the coat of arms of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
