Ice Age Giants Silver

Prehistoric Megafauna from a German Mint

Ice Age Giants (Giganten der Eiszeit) is a completed eight-coin series depicting prehistoric megafauna, struck by Leipziger Edelmetallverarbeitung (LEV) in Germany and issued as legal tender of the Republic of Ghana. The series ran from 2019 to 2022, releasing two animal designs per year, each in three formats: 1 oz silver, 1 kg silver, and 1 oz gold.

LEV is part of the Geiger Edelmetalle group since 2018, a name that carries recognition in European precious metals markets. Geiger also produces the well-known square silver bars and strikes the Armenian Noah's Ark coins, giving the Ice Age Giants series a manufacturer pedigree that extends beyond the Ghanaian legal tender status.

The eight animals in the complete series are: Giant Deer (Irish Elk, 2019), Woolly Mammoth (2019), Smilodon/Sabre-toothed Tiger (2020), Cave Bear (2020), Woolly Rhinoceros (2021), Aurochs (2021), Reindeer (2022), and Cave Lion (2022). Each coin identifies its subject by both common name and scientific Latin name (Megaloceros giganteus, Mammuthus primigenius, and so on), lending a natural-history rigour to the designs. A distinctive visual element unites the series: a border of eight silhouette pictograms representing all eight animals appears on every coin, creating continuity across the entire collection.

The 1 oz silver coins had a mintage of 15,000 per design, placing them in the collector-bullion space rather than the mass-production bullion market. That volume is limited enough to sustain some collector premium but accessible enough for bullion-oriented buyers. The Woolly Mammoth and Sabre-toothed Tiger issues tend to be the most popular and the first to sell through dealer inventories.

Ice Age Giants Coin Specifications

Complete Series

Design Elements

• Reverse: Featured animal in its natural Ice Age habitat
• Border: Eight silhouette pictograms of all series subjects
• Obverse: Coat of Arms of the Republic of Ghana, denomination, year, and metal/purity specifications
• Packaging: Individual protective capsule; numbered certificate for 1 kg silver and 1 oz gold versions

Tax Treatment of Ice Age Giants Coins

The Ice Age Giants coins are legal tender in Ghana, denominated in Cedis. The face values are nominal and far below metal value. The tax treatment varies significantly by jurisdiction, with particular relevance in the European market where these coins are primarily sold.

Germany and the DACH Region

Germany is the primary market, distributed through Auragentum and specialist dealers such as CelticGold. Silver coins from Ghana may qualify for differential taxation (the margin scheme, or Differenzbesteuerung) as non-EU legal tender coins. Under Germany's implementation of the margin scheme (Section 25a of the German VAT Act, UStG), dealers can apply VAT only to their margin rather than the full price, resulting in significantly lower effective tax compared to the standard 19% rate. This is a key selling point for the series in the European market. Austria (20% VAT) and Switzerland (8.1% VAT on silver) are secondary markets within the DACH region.

United Kingdom

Gold coins qualify as investment gold under HMRC rules (legal tender, .9999 purity) and are VAT-free. Silver coins attract the full 20% VAT rate. Ghanaian legal tender is not CGT-exempt in the UK. Available through specialist dealers such as BullionForLess.

United States

Treated as precious metals bullion for state sales tax purposes. Roughly 35 states exempt precious metals. The 1 oz gold at .9999 purity meets IRA eligibility requirements. The 1 oz silver at .999 meets the IRS minimum for silver, though IRA custodian acceptance of Ghanaian legal tender coins varies.

Netherlands

Available through Dutch dealers such as GoudPensioen. The Dutch margin scheme (margeregeling) may apply to pre-owned coins, but new silver coins attract the standard 21% BTW rate.

From the Pleistocene to Modern Bullion

The Ice Age Giants series draws its subjects from the megafauna of the Pleistocene epoch, the geological period spanning roughly 2.6 million years ago to 11,700 years ago. During this era, Earth's landscapes were dominated by creatures that have become iconic in popular imagination: woolly mammoths, sabre-toothed cats, cave bears, and their contemporaries.

The Giant Deer (Megaloceros giganteus), commonly known as the Irish Elk despite being neither exclusively Irish nor an elk, opened the series in 2019. It was the largest deer that ever lived, with antlers spanning up to 3.7 metres. The Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) followed in the same year, the most recognisable Ice Age animal and the series' most popular issue among buyers.

The 2020 pair brought two apex predators: the Smilodon (Smilodon fatalis), popularly called the sabre-toothed tiger though it was not closely related to modern tigers, and the Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus), a species that inhabited European caves and whose remains have been found in enormous quantities at some sites. The 2021 releases featured the Woolly Rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) and the Aurochs (Bos primigenius), the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle, which survived into the 17th century before the last individual died in Poland in 1627. The 2022 conclusion paired the Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), the only species in the set still alive today, with the Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea), one of the largest cats ever to have lived.

The arrangement of Ghanaian legal tender struck by a German mint follows a common numismatic pattern. Nations such as Palau, Niue, the Cook Islands, and Tuvalu frequently authorise foreign mints to produce legal tender coins, earning revenue from minting rights while the mint contributes manufacturing technology. In this case, Ghana provides the sovereign authority and LEV/Geiger provides the German precision engineering. The Auragentum distribution company handled the European marketing, targeting the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) market as the primary buyer base.