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South African Mint · Est. 1892

TheAfrican Range

The first high-relief strike in the history of the South African Mint. A relief so high the cheetah steps out of the surface — Act I of the hunt in five acts.

Act I of V — SurveyHigh ReliefProofStrictly limited
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7 issues in gold & silver · From 499 €

African Range 2026 silver coinAfrican Range 2026 gold coin — surveying cheetah

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Secure Act I of the series

Five issues through 2030 — and every complete collection begins with this first act.

Silver 999
Gold 999.9
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„Untamed gold: artistry, nature and form — united in perfect balance.“

More than three years of conceptualisation, modelling, prototyping and refinement culminate in a work of enduring distinction: South Africa’s first high-relief coin series.

„One of the most exciting products we have introduced in recent decades.“

Richard Stone — Product Development, South African Mint

3+years of development
5acts · 2026–2030
No. 1South Africa’s first high-relief coin
133years of minting tradition

One series — five acts — 2026 to 2030

The cheetah’s hunt

One act per year. Five coins tell the complete story of a hunt — from the first survey to the repose that follows. Linked not merely in style, but in narrative.

Available now
African Range 2026 — SURVEY
Act ISURVEY2026 · The Survey

From termite mounds the cheetah scans the grassland — razor-sharp eyesight, absolute patience.

African Range 2027 — STALK
Act IISTALK2027 · The Stalk

Crouched low in the tall grass, silent to within 30 metres. Stillness. Precision.

African Range 2028 — CHASE
Act IIICHASE2028 · The Chase

The explosion: 100 km/h in three seconds — the fastest land animal on earth.

African Range 2029 — CATCH
Act IVCATCH2029 · The Catch

The dewclaw trips the prey — the hunt is decided in seconds.

African Range 2030 — REPOSE
Act VREPOSE2030 · The Repose

After the hunt, stillness returns. The circle closes — and with it, the series.

Surveying Cheetah III — bronze by Dylan Lewis, Kirstenbosch

“Surveying Cheetah III”, bronze — Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Town

The artist

Dylan Lewis

Born in 1964 into a South African family of artists, Dylan Lewis is widely recognised as one of the world’s foremost sculptors of the animal form. Between 1993 and 2000 he devoted himself to Africa’s great predators — leopard, lion and cheetah.

The African Range translates his bronze works into minted precious metal for the first time — each coin begins not with a sketch, but with a finished sculpture.

Dylan Lewis working on a monumental sculpture
Dylan Lewis drawing the figure
Christie’s London — solo auctionsOver 20 years of international career

Exclusive insight

From clay to bronze

Watch Dylan Lewis at work: how the surveying cheetah emerges from raw clay — the very work that carries Act I of the African Range.

A unique development process

Three years. Eight stages. One masterpiece.

The bronze
01

The bronze

It begins not with a sketch but with a finished work of art: Dylan Lewis’s “Surveying Cheetah III” — born of years of field observation.

The plaster model
02

The plaster model

Engraver Duma Mtimkulu translates the sculpture into plaster by hand — more than ten months of consultation and creative reviews until proportion, volume and texture are perfect.

The artist takes over
03

The artist takes over

Dylan Lewis reworks the model with his own hands — every gesture of the original flows directly from the sculptor’s hand into the coin.

Laser finishing
04

Laser finishing

Stochastic laser frosting with inverted tonality lends the figure raw energy and the landscape atmospheric depth.

The complete development story — all eight stages, the SA Mint team and the laser frosting technique — is told on every product page of the series.

Macro shot of the laser frosting texture

„Perhaps the most detailed model ever produced for South African legal tender.“

Side view of a pattern showing the markedly raised relief

The technique

What high relief really means

Hold the coin to the light and you see it at once: shadows travel across muscle and rock, as if the bronze itself stood before you — within the diameter of a palm.

Sculptural depth

Markedly higher relief than classic proof coins: the figure rises bodily from the surface — tangible, visible, three-dimensional. Gold is struck to its physical flow limit.

Stochastic laser frosting

Instead of a coarse halftone screen: a stochastic tonal frosting with a strikingly analog feel — fine enough to render atmospheric perspective in the background landscape.

Inverted tonality

A photographically inverted frosting makes the figure and edge details stand proud of the field — raw energy, maximum depth.

2026 edition

Strictly limited mintages

The official mintage figures of the entire edition — worldwide. Once sold out, gone forever.

MetalWeightDiameterFace valueWorldwide mintageRarity
Gold 999.91 kg90 mm1.000 Rand10
Gold 999.95 oz45 mm500 Rand50
Gold 999.92 oz38,65 mm200 Rand200
Gold 999.91 oz (privy mark)27 mm100 Rand50
Gold 999.91 oz27 mm100 Rand550
Gold 999.91/4 oz20 mm50 Rand2.000
Silver 9991 kg100 mm50 Rand100
Silver 9995 oz50 mm20 Rand350
Silver 9992 oz38,65 mm10 Rand2.000

Source: “The African Range” — official companion book of the South African Mint (2025). Mintages of individual dealer editions may differ — the respective product title is authoritative.

Cheetah in the savanna

Untamed Gold.

The hunt has begun.

Acts II to V will follow — Act I, however, will never be struck again. Whoever wants to own the whole story begins at its beginning.

Secure Act I now