African Wildlife "Elephant" Mintages

APMEX sells new versions of these coins and includes some minting numbers in their product description. Try here:

http://www.apmex.com/Category/387/A...t_Coins.aspx

Thanks yellow88.

Btw, if you are born in 88 then I would like to congratulate you on taking a step in the right direction by getting into PM. My brother born the same year but he take no interest in these, even after I've shown and talked to him so many times....

Thanks for the info yellow88. Please let me know if you find any numbers for the Zambian series as well.

Here's some information I got from one of the German Mint's authorized dealer:

"Regarding of the Elephant mintages of previous years please see below:

2004 20,000 pcs
2005 20,000 pcs
2006 20,000 pcs
2007 20,000 pcs
2008 20,000 pcs

With the year 2009 mint changed the typical mintage to a solely bullion product and so they have no minting limits.
Since then every year the mintage has been stopped at December 31 and started with the new year on January 1."

I can't say how reliable his number is. All I know is that he's a big US dealer that is specialize in EU special coins.

Regarding the Somali Elephant 1 oz silver coins minted by the Bavarian State Mint, I've found info that the the first few years the mintage was limited to ONLY 5K for 2004-2008. After that, the bullion numbers increased dramatically (100K+ or -) until 2014, when the mintages are listed as 'TBD'.

But there are some 'specials': 2013-2016 had special versions done with lunar privy seals on the reverse (Elephant side) of the silver coin denoting the animal of the year; in sequence: Dragon, Snake, Horse, and Ram. These special privy versions only had mintages of between 3K and 5K, making them much rarer than the normal higher mintages. Other than the privy seal, the coins were otherwise identical EXCEPT the price: the Privy Seal versions are about twice the price given their rarity.

There is also a 4-coin fractional PROOF set for the years 2012-2015, with 2 oz, 1 oz, 1/2oz, and 1/4 oz of the same elephant design of that particular year. The proofs were also limited mintage: No idea of the 2012, but the 2013 was only 500 sets and the 2014-2015 were only 2000 sets each. These sets (if you can find them), run between $300-400 per set and are nicely boxed and with COA.

One anomaly coin exist: 1.) there is a 2010 Somali with the elephant reverse of 2009, which was also released in 2010 with a replacement, new 2010 elephant reverse. So there are (2) different 2010 Somali Elephant coins, each with a different reverse. No info on the mintages of the 2010 coin with the 2009 elephant reverse. But the 'regular 2010 had a mintage of 120K.

Lastly, 2015 had a sloppy minting/stamping error, where they attempted to stamp the silver reverse accidently using the gold reverse die. Then they attempted to correct it by overstamping the 'AU' with 'AG', doing a poor job of 'correcting the error'. (1500) 2015 Somali Elephant silver coins were minted before the error was noted. (1000) of those coins were destroyed, but (500) make it out onto the market. These coins are ridiculously overpriced ($1000), seeming to 'reward' the mint for making a big screwup.

2004-2013 https://worldsilverbullion.weebly.c...lephant.html
2015 338,250 https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces69379.html
Still digging to find others. The Bavarian Mint doesn't show any mintages on their site.

Nice run of elephants Debrajc! Many of those are real hard to find now.