Look out! A bizarre, feathered, carnivorous dinosaur, lunges directly at you when you tilt the coin!

Talisman Coins and the Royal Canadian Mint team up with the Canadian Museum of Nature to bring you this new series of must-have dinosaur coins - all to celebrate the Museum’s 25th anniversary and to underscore its status as one of North America's leading natural history and sciences museums.


Sinosauropteryx is just one of many amazing dinosaur fossils on display in the Talisman Energy Fossil Gallery. This mighty beast is a fierce prehistoric carnivore that springs to life with a slight tilt of the coin, lunging forward to bite your head off! ItÂ’s presented in an elaborate, oversized, full color folder that also includes six trading cards!

Kids, adults and dinosaur enthusiasts alike will thrill to and appreciate this dynamic, colorful design!

Sinosauropteryx—A Feathered Dinosaur!
Sinosauropteryx prima (meaning "First Chinese reptilian wing") is the first species of non-avian dinosaur found with the fossilized impressions of feathers, as well as the first non-avian dinosaur where coloration has been determined! It lived in China during the early Cretaceous period and was a close relative of Compsognathus, which is featured significantly in the films Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III. The remarkably well-preserved fossils show that Sinosauropteryx was covered with a furry down of very simple feathers - though some controversy arose, with an alternative interpretation of the filamentous impression as collagen fiber. These filaments consisted of a simple two-branched structure, roughly similar to the secondary feathers of the modern kiwi bird.

The fossils of Sinosauropteryx also show an alternation of lighter and darker bands preserved on the tail, which may give an indication of what the animal looked like in life. Fucheng Zhang and colleagues examined the fossilized feathers of several dinosaurs and early birds, and found evidence that they preserved melanosomes, the cells that give the feathers of modern birds their color. By examining melanosome structure and distribution, Zhang and colleagues were able to confirm the presence of light and dark bands in the tail of Sinosauropteryx. Furthermore, the team was able to compare melanosome types to those of modern birds to determine a general range of shading. They concluded that the darker feathers of Sinosauropteryx were chestnut or reddish brown.

Sinosauropteryx prima is among the smallest known non-avian theropods, with the  largest known specimens reach up to 39 inches (98 cm) in length, including the very long tail. Sinosauropteryx is distinguished from other small dinosaurs by several features, including having a skull longer than its upper leg bone (femur) and very short, stout forelimbs, with the arms being only 30% the length of the legs. Overall, Sinosauropteryx had proportionately shorter limbs than its close relative Compsognathus. In addition, Sinosauropteryx had several features unique among all other theropods (that is, bipedal, mainly carnivorous dinosaurs). It had 64 vertebrae in its tail, giving it the longest tail relative to body length of any theropod. It also had very large fingers for its small arms, with the second finger and claw being longer than the entire lower arm (radius).

Sinosauropteryx is important because it had feather-like structures, yet was not very closely related to the previous "first bird" Archaeopteryx. There are many dinosaur families that were more closely related to Archaeopteryx than Sinosauropteryx was. This indicates that feathers may have been a characteristic of many theropod dinosaurs, not just the obviously bird-like ones, making it possible that other, equally distant dinosaurs such as Compsognathus had feathers as well, although their close proximity to the origin of feathers and the presence of scales on Juravenator and Tyrannosaurus make the distribution of feathers in primitive coelurosaurs extremely difficult to estimate accurately.

The first fossil specimen of the dinosaur later named Sinosauropteryx prima was uncovered in August 1996 by Li Yumin. Yumin was a farmer and part-time fossil hunter who often prospected around Liaoning province in order to acquire fossils to sell to individuals and museums. Yumin recognized the unique quality of the specimen, which was separated into two slabs, and sold the slabs to two separate museums in China: the National Geological Museum in Beijing, and the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology. The director of the Beijing museum, Ji Qiang, recognized the importance of the find, as did visiting Canadian paleontologist Phil Currie. Currie recognized the significance of the fossil immediately. As The New York Times quoted him, "When I saw this slab of silt stone mixed with volcanic ash in which the creature is embedded, I was bowled over."

Technology Note
The Sinosauropteryx Lenticular Half Dollar is the third dinosaur release to feature the Royal Canadian MintÂ’s new 3-D lenticular technology. The RCM leads the world with its proprietary colorization technology, in which the color is actually sealed on the coin. The lenticular technology combines color with the illusion of movement - as you tilt the coin back and forth, the dinosaur seems to leap forward and lunge at you!

The Specimen Finish
This coin features the uniquely-Canadian "specimen" finish, a three-fold combination of different finishes. The design (raised area or relief) includes both brilliant and mirrored surfaces, while the fields (background) are subtly striated, resulting in a contrasting, matte appearance. No other mint in the world employs the specimen finish.

Obverse

A meticulously detailed Sinosauropteryx dinosaur lunges forward to grab its favorite prey, a small lizard, highlighted in color by the Royal Canadian Mint's proprietary colorization technology, and further enhanced by the mint's lenticular 3-D effect. The date and denomination are also indicated.

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in profile facing right. This portrait, the fourth effigy of the queen to appear on Canadian Coinage, was executed by the artist Susanna Blunt. The legend ELIZABETH II D. G. REGINA ("Elizabeth II, Queen by the Grace of God") also appears.

Packaging

The coin is housed in a full color blister pack folder, containing six collector trading cards as well!