Ice Age Giants Gold

Prehistoric Megafauna on Ghanaian Legal Tender Gold

The Ice Age Giants is an eight-coin series issued by the Republic of Ghana and struck by LEV Leipzig (Leipziger Edelmetallverarbeitung GmbH), a German mint that is part of the Geiger Edelmetalle group. The series ran from 2019 to 2022, with two designs released per year, each produced in three formats: 1 oz silver, 1 kg silver, and 1 oz gold at .9999 fineness. The complete set covers eight Pleistocene megafauna species, from the Woolly Mammoth to the Cave Lion, using their scientific Latin names alongside the common names.

The arrangement of African sovereign authority with European production is standard in the numismatic industry. Ghana provides the legal tender status (denominated in cedis), while LEV Leipzig provides the minting technology and quality control. LEV is the same facility that produces the well-known Geiger Edelmetalle square bars and the Armenian Noah's Ark coins, so the manufacturing pedigree is established.

The gold coins in this series are limited to 1,000 pieces per design, making the complete eight-coin gold set just 8,000 coins across four years. This positioned the gold version firmly as a collector item rather than a mass-market bullion product, with premiums reflecting both the gold content and the limited mintage. Marketing and distribution were handled by Auragentum, a German precious metals distributor, targeting the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) market as the primary audience.

The series is now complete with no continuation announced. Secondary market availability depends on remaining dealer stock and private resales, with the Woolly Mammoth and Sabre-toothed Tiger designs tending to be the first to sell out and command the highest collector premiums.

Ice Age Giants Gold Coin Specifications

Complete Series

Each coin ships in a protective capsule. The gold and 1 kg silver versions include a numbered certificate of authenticity. A distinctive design element is the border containing eight silhouette pictograms representing all animals in the series, providing visual continuity when the complete set is displayed together.

Tax Treatment of the Ice Age Giants Gold Coins

The Ice Age Giants coins are legal tender of the Republic of Ghana, denominated in cedis. This sovereign status affects tax treatment, though the specific rules depend on how each jurisdiction classifies non-EU legal tender gold coins.

European Union (primary market): Investment gold under EU Directive 98/80/EC covers gold coins minted after 1800 that are or were legal tender, with .900+ purity, and sold at no more than 80% above gold content value. The Ice Age Giants at .9999 purity meet the fineness requirement. Whether they appear on the EU's annual qualifying coin list determines automatic VAT exemption. In Germany, the primary market, gold coins from non-EU nations may qualify under the general investment gold definition. Silver coins from Ghana may benefit from the margin scheme (Differenzbesteuerung) as non-EU legal tender coins, resulting in lower effective VAT compared to silver bars. The German phrase for the series is Giganten der Eiszeit.

United Kingdom: Gold coins of .999+ purity that are or were legal tender generally qualify as investment gold (VAT-exempt). The coins are not CGT-exempt (only UK Royal Mint legal tender qualifies).

United States: At .9999 purity and legal tender status, the gold coins meet the criteria for IRA eligibility, though the 1,000-piece mintage and resulting collector premium may make them impractical for IRA holdings where fair market value is the basis. Sales tax varies by state.

Canada: Sovereign legal tender gold coins of 99.5%+ purity are GST/HST exempt.

Singapore: Legal tender gold coin of 99.5%+ purity qualifies as an Investment Precious Metal. GST-exempt.

Hong Kong: No sales tax, no import duty, no capital gains tax.

Eight Extinct Giants Across Four Years

The Ice Age Giants series drew from the megafauna of the Pleistocene epoch (roughly 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), a period when large mammals roamed Europe, Asia, and the Americas before climate change and human expansion drove most to extinction.

The series opened in 2019 with two designs. The Giant Deer (Megaloceros giganteus, commonly called the Irish Elk despite being neither exclusively Irish nor an elk) was the inaugural coin, followed by the Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), the most iconic of all ice age animals. The mammoth remains the best-known design in the series and was among the first to sell out at primary market dealers.

In 2020, the Smilodon (Smilodon fatalis, the sabre-toothed tiger) and Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus) followed. The sabre-toothed tiger rivalled the mammoth in collector popularity. The cave bear, which lived in European caves and inspired early cave painting, was the largest bear species that ever existed, standing up to 3.5 metres tall on its hind legs.

The 2021 releases featured the Woolly Rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) and Aurochs (Bos primigenius). The aurochs is notable as the ancestor of all modern domestic cattle. The last known aurochs died in Poland's Jaktorow Forest in 1627, making it the most recently extinct species in the series.

The final 2022 pair comprised the Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea). The reindeer is the only species in the series that survives today, though ice age populations were substantially larger than modern herds. The cave lion, the largest cat ever to roam Europe, is depicted in some of the oldest cave art known, including paintings at Chauvet Cave in France dating to approximately 36,000 years ago.

Each reverse depicts the featured animal in its natural ice age habitat, with the border carrying eight silhouette pictograms representing all series subjects. The obverse displays the Coat of Arms of Ghana with the denomination, year, and metal specifications. The consistent design framework across all eight coins creates a unified aesthetic when the full set is assembled.

Ice Age Giants vs Other Themed Gold Coin Series

The Ice Age Giants occupies the niche of limited-mintage themed gold coins, competing against several established programmes with similar concepts.

Against the Perth Mint Lunar series, the contrast is in scale. Lunar gold coins are produced in much higher quantities with global distribution and deep secondary markets. The Ice Age Giants at 1,000 pieces per design is a collector series with European distribution; the Lunar is a bullion series with worldwide reach. Buyers seeking gold bullion with annual design interest are better served by the Lunar's liquidity and lower premiums.

The Prehistoric Life series from the Congo uses a similar concept of extinct animals on African-nation legal tender. Both programmes use the structure of African sovereignty with European production quality. The Ice Age Giants has tighter mintages (1,000 gold vs higher for Congo issues) and benefits from the Geiger Edelmetalle/LEV Leipzig manufacturing reputation.

Closer to home, LEV Leipzig also produces the Armenian Noah's Ark coins. Noah's Ark is a core bullion product with much higher mintages, serving as LEV's mainstream offering. The Ice Age Giants was positioned as the limited collector counterpart, with lower volumes and higher premiums per coin.

The Royal Mint's Queen's Beasts series (2016-2021) provides the closest comparison in format: a multi-year themed series with fixed designs per year, available in gold and silver, from an established mint. The Queen's Beasts had higher mintages, stronger international distribution through the Royal Mint's global dealer network, and broader brand recognition. Both series are now complete, with secondary market prices for individual years reflecting both gold content and design popularity.

For European buyers, particularly in the DACH region where the series was primarily marketed, the Ice Age Giants offers a locally sourced alternative to Perth Mint or Royal Mint themed programmes. The German production quality from LEV Leipzig, combined with the margin scheme potential for the silver versions, gives the series practical advantages in the German market that foreign-produced coins may not match.