Royalty among horned dinosaurs: Uncover the story of a unique Canadian find.

In 2005, a prehistoric snout encased in calcareous concretion was spotted in a cliff overlooking Alberta’s Oldman River. After a challenging extraction, the mostly intact skull—the one depicted on this coin—proved to be a significant discovery: its unusual mix of features, such as the set of horns and an elaborate frill, led paleontologists at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology to determine that the skull belonged to a new species of horned dinosaurs, and that ceratopsians were more diverse than previously thought!

Unveiled in 2015, Regaliceratops peterhewsi makes its coin debut on this 2024 collectible, where the 69-million-year-old skull shines against the black rhodium-plated “limestone” background.

Presenting “Royal Horned Face,” another Canadian dinosaur discovery.

Good to know

COIN #3! Imagine the excitement of unearthing a new prehistoric species: Discovering Dinosaurs places you in the field and at the site of an exciting Canadian dinosaur discovery! This is our third Discovering Dinosaurs coin.

RHODIUM PLATING! The black rhodium-plated background represents the hidden or unknown past. This dark design element keeps the focus on the engraved fossils that have helped paleontologists piece together the story of prehistoric Canada.

“NEW” DINOSAUR! Like 2021’s Reaper of Death (Coin #1) and 2022’s Mercury’s Horned Face (Coin #2), Regaliceratops is a recent Canadian discovery: the 69-million-year-old skull depicted on this coin was discovered in 2005, and after careful study, the newly discovered species was unveiled in 2015. Regaliceratops has never appeared on a coin… until now!

SCIENTIFICALLY VERIFIED! The fossil depicted on your coin has been verified for scientific accuracy by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, where the skull was carefully studied by paleontologists, and where it is now on permanent display in the museum’s Dinosaur Hall.

ENGRAVED TEXTURE! Beneath the rhodium plating on your coin’s reverse, the engraved texture represents the thrill of discovery: it mimics the textured appearance of hard rock in which the Regaliceratops skull was encased.

FOR DINO LOVERS OF ALL AGES! Dinosaurs are a popular theme with collectors and Canadians of all ages. They're also an important part of Canada's natural heritage!

INCLUDES SERIALIZED CERTIFICATE! The Royal Canadian Mint certifies all of its collector coins.

NO GST/HST

Did you know?

Its scientific name is Regaliceratops peterhewsi, and that regal genus was inspired by the dinosaur’s crown-like frill. Regaliceratops comes from the Latin word “regalis” meaning “royal” and the Greek word “ceratops” meaning “horned face,” while peterhewsi honours Peter Hews, the Canadian geologist who first discovered the skull.

Palaeontologists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta., spent three years excavating the 268.64 kg fossil depicted on your coin’s reverse. According to Dr. François Therrien, the museum’s Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology: “When it was being prepared at the Royal Tyrrell Museum and before it received its official scientific name, Regaliceratops was given the nickname ‘Hellboy’ because the fossil specimen had been very difficult to collect in the field and it was encased in very hard rock, making it very difficult to clean and prepare in the lab.”

Despite being close cousins, Mercuriceratops (featured on the 2022 coin) and Regaliceratops don’t look alike. “In fact, Regaliceratops is a highly unusual ceratopsian. Although it is a member of a group of ceratopsians that possess large brow horns, a small nasal horn, and a large shield-like frill with a scalloped edge, Regaliceratops doesn’t have the same appearance as its cousin Mercuriceratops,” explains Dr. Therrien. “Instead, it mimics another group of ceratopsians that have small brow horns, a large nasal horn, and a short but elaborately ornamented frill, like Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus.”

Behind closed doors

As a biologist, I found it thrilling to illustrate the recently described horned dinosaur, Regaliceratops ("Royal Horned Face"), because its skull—possessing features from both major groups of horned dinosaurs—bears the earmarks of the process of convergent evolution, so it looks a bit like a chimeric mishmash. Illustrating its skull was no trivial task because its brow ridges, frill, and crown-gem-like epiparietal ornaments fit together at odd angles, giving it an overall boxy, stealth jet-like appearance.

- Julius Csotonyi, Paleoartist

Regaliceratops is the newest addition to the big family of Canadian horned dinosaurs—in fact, Canada, and Alberta in particular, should be called the “Land of the Ceratopsians,” because nowhere else on Earth do you find as many different types of horned dinosaurs as you do here! Discovered in southwestern Alberta, Regaliceratops comes from an area where very few dinosaurs had been discovered before. It is an important fossil because it fills an important gap in the fossil record: Regaliceratops lived around 69 million years ago, a time interval during which we know very little about the dinosaurs that inhabited North America.

- Dr. François Therrien, Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology

About the design

Your coin is individually encapsulated and presented in a Royal Canadian Mint-branded clamshell with a black beauty box.

Reverse: Royal Horned Face Dinosaur

Designed by Canadian paleoartist Julius Csotonyi, the coin’s reverse features the fossilized skull of Regaliceratops peterhewsi, a recently discovered horned dinosaur species that lived approximately 69 million years ago. Beneath the black rhodium plating, the engraved texture represents the hard concretion that encased the skull, which was found on the banks of the Oldman River in southern Alberta.

Obverse: His Majesty King Charles III

The obverse also features rhodium plating behind the effigy of His Majesty King Charles III by Canadian artist Steven Rosati.

Product # 246056

2024 $20 Pure Silver Coin - Discovering Dinosaurs: Royal Horned Face