The Ghanaian Cedi has been the currency of Ghana since 1965, when it replaced the pre-decimal Ghanaian Pound.
Apart from the regular circulating coinage, the country has also authorised some foreign mints to issue commemorative and bullion coins under its jurisdiction. These are typically in standard bullion sizes, such as one ounce of silver (abbreviated as 1 oz Ag, where "Ag" comes from the Latin word for silver, Argentum).
The Woolly Rhinoceros is the fifth design in the Giants of the Ice Age coin series, which features eight large pre-historic animals; each coin in the series was issued in three different formats. The series was produced by German company Auragentum, with the coins struck by Leipziger Edelmetallverarbeitung (a division of Geiger Edelmetalle).
Common across Europe and Asia until the end of the last glacial period, the Woolly Rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) was covered in long thick hair, and lived on the Mammoth Steppe alongside its elephant counterpart.
Adult males approached 3.8 m from head to tail (2 m tall at the shoulder), and could weigh up to 2,700 kg. They had a massive hump on the shoulders, believed to support a huge front keratin horn. Numerous frozen corpses have given us much physical data. They were reddish-brown, with a thick undercoat, although hair on the legs was shorter to prevent a build up of ice.
Adaptations to the cold also included shorter ears than modern rhinos, short tails, and thick skin, ranging from 5-15 mm. They fed on grasses and sedges, common on the steppe, and healthy adults had no natural predators. Like many megafauna species of the time, they were common subjects for cave paintings. |