South African Mint · Commemorative Programme

The Big Five.

Elephant. Lion. Rhinoceros. Leopard. Buffalo. The five animals that defined African wildlife conservation, rendered across three series of South African Mint commemoratives — and one of the most successful collector programmes the SA Mint has ever produced.

Since 2019 · Three series · Five animals

The split-face portrait

Why This Series Matters

The signature design

Two coins, one portrait.

The reverse of every Big Five coin shows only half of the animal's face. Place two coins side by side and the two halves join to form a single, complete close-up portrait. Place all five next to one another and a herd appears across the table. The design is the collecting mechanic.

It is the move that separates the Big Five from every other wildlife coinage programme in the world. Most commemorative series treat each coin as a self-contained object. Big Five coins are designed to be incomplete on their own. The reward of the series — both visually and as a collector — is in the completion. It is also the reason the SA Mint offers "Double Capsule" silver sets, presenting two coins together so the join can be displayed as the artist intended.

The design has remained consistent across all three series. Whether the animal portrait faces left (Series I), faces right (Series II), or appears in full motion (Series III), the split is preserved. Twenty-five coins will eventually exist when all three series are complete — twenty-five halves of five animals, viewed from three different angles each.

The five animals

Release Years Across All Three Series

The Elephant

2019Series I
2024Series III

The Lion

2020Series I
2026Series III

The Rhino

2021Series I
2025Series III

The Leopard

2022Series II
2027Series III

The Buffalo

2023Series II
2028Series III

The three series

Design Evolution Across Six Years

I 2019 – 2021

Portrait facing left

The founding series. Three animals — Elephant (2019), Lion (2020), Rhino (2021) — each rendered as a portrait with the animal's face turned to the viewer's left. Established the split-face conceit and the gold-and-silver dual-metal format that would define the entire programme.

II 2022 – 2023

Portrait facing right

The completing chapter. Two animals — Leopard (2022) and Buffalo (2023) — finishing the Big Five in portrait format, with the face turned to the right. The 2021 1 oz Gold Proof Buffalo, with a worldwide mintage of only 500 pieces, sits at the close of this era as one of the programme's standout rarities.

III 2024 – 2028

— The current programme —

Full body, in motion

The reinvention. Series III replaces the seated portrait with full-body depictions of each animal in motion — running, walking, alert. The split-face reverse is preserved, so the collecting mechanic still works, but the obverse is now active rather than studied. Elephant (2024) opened the series; Rhino (2025), Lion (2026), Leopard (2027), and Buffalo (2028) follow.

The 2024 Elephant

Series III · Opening Issue

Released by the SA Mint in September–October 2024, the Elephant opened Series III with the broadest format range of any Big Five issue to date — eleven distinct products spanning gold, silver, large-format pieces, double capsules, and Krugerrand combination sets. The mintage figures below define the rarity tier for collectors building a Series III set from issue one.

Format	Metal · Purity	Weight	Diameter	Mintage
1 oz Gold Proof	Au .9999	31.107 g	32.69 mm	500
¼ oz Gold Proof	Au .9999	7.777 g	22.0 mm	2,000
5 oz Gold Proof	Au .9999	155.535 g	50 mm	50
1 kg Gold Proof	Au .9999	1,000 g	90 mm	10
1 oz Silver Proof	Ag .999	31.107 g	38.725 mm	—
1 oz Silver BU	Ag .999	31.1 g	38.73 mm	10,000 – 15,000
Double Capsule Silver Set	Ag .999 · 2 × 1 oz	62.2 g	38.73 mm each	1,000
5 oz Silver	Ag .999	155.535 g	64 mm	500
1 kg Silver	Ag .999	1,000 g	100 mm	100
Elephant + Krugerrand Gold Set	Au .9999 · 2 oz total	—	—	100
Elephant + Krugerrand Silver Set	Ag .999 · 2 oz total	—	—	1,000

A detail worth looking for

The yellow-billed oxpecker

Look closely at the reverse of the 2024 Elephant. The SA Mint engraved a small filigree image of a yellow-billed oxpecker (Buphagus africanus) — the small bird that lives on the back of large African herbivores, picking ticks from their hide in a relationship of mutual benefit. It is not decoration. The oxpecker is a deliberate signature of integrated ecology — a quiet acknowledgement that the elephant on the coin does not exist alone in its environment, but as part of a system. It is the kind of detail that rewards a collector who picks up a magnifying glass.

Five routes in

For Collectors

Route 01

Complete Series III

All five animals — Elephant 2024, Rhino 2025, Lion 2026, Leopard 2027, Buffalo 2028 — in your chosen metal and format, over the five-year release period. The cleanest collecting route, with a clear endpoint.

Route 02

Themed focus

Pick one animal — say, the elephant — and collect it across all three series. Three different artistic interpretations of the same subject by the SA Mint, six years apart. The route most rewarding for those interested in the design evolution itself.

Route 03

Format specialisation

Focus on the large formats — 5 oz gold, 1 kg gold, 5 oz silver, 1 kg silver. The 1 kg gold Elephant has a worldwide mintage of just ten pieces. The route for collectors who value extreme rarity over completeness.

Route 04

Double Capsule display sets

The Double Capsule sets pair two 1 oz silver coins so the split-face design can be displayed as the artist intended. Limited to 1,000 sets per release. The collecting route most aligned with the programme's design philosophy.

Route 05

Krugerrand combination sets

The 2024 Elephant releases include combination sets pairing the Big Five issue with a mint-marked Krugerrand bearing an elephant mintmark above the springbok's back. A genuinely unique collectible — the only place a Krugerrand carries a non-Krugerrand mintmark. Limited to 100 gold and 1,000 silver sets.

The references

Standard Sources

The South African MintBig 5 Series III: Elephant — official release, October 2024.
EMK1 oz Silver Big Five III Elephant 2024; Big Five Buffalo 1 oz Gold 2021.
GreysheetSeries III debut coverage — African Elephant, October 2024.
JM Bullion2024 1 oz South African Big Five Series III Elephant Silver Coin reference.
EMK Double CapsuleElephant Set — Big Five III double-capsule release.
MDMSüdafrika 2025 Big Five Serie III Rhino 1/4 Unze Gold.
AuPortalStříbrná mince Big Five III — Rhino 1 oz 2025.
PCGS Set RegistrySouth African Silver 1 oz (5 Rand) Big Five circulation strikes.

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