1 Ounce Gold African Range Cheetah 2026 (Mintage: 500 | High Relief | Proof)
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- Lifelike Design: fur down to detail
- Noble Origin: South African Mint
- With Certificate: in an elegant case
- Lifelike DesignFur texture and muscles are precisely worked out
- Noble OriginStruck by South Africa's renowned mint
- With CertificateCertificate of authenticity and elegant case included
Price alert set
shareSouth African Mint · Est. 1892
TheAfrican Range
The first high-relief strike in the history of the South African Mint.
Act I of the hunt: the cheetah surveys.
„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.
The feline form rises from the surface with striking dimensionality — a direct link to the bronze sculpture it draws from. And to the untamed animal itself.
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.
From termite mounds the cheetah scans the grassland — razor-sharp eyesight, absolute patience.
Crouched low in the tall grass, silent to within 30 metres. Stillness. Precision.
The explosion: 100 km/h in three seconds — the fastest land animal on earth.
The dewclaw trips the prey — the hunt is decided in seconds.
After the hunt, stillness returns. The circle closes — and with it, the series.
The 2026 design
Survey — the surveying cheetah
Reverse — “Surveying Cheetah III” after Dylan Lewis
Dynamism in a triangle
The sculpture’s profile silhouette forms a forward-tilted triangle — tension, balanced by typography arranged in a perfect half circle along the bottom.
The textural frame
A frame executed in the same texture as the sculpture underscores its hand-wrought character — and demanded an entirely new approach to coin modelling.
A landscape in atmosphere
In the background: a delicately lasered savanna landscape with atmospheric depth — applied at maximum laser resolution.
The common portrait
The obverse of all five issues presents a cropped profile view of Dylan Lewis’s bronze “Cheetah Head” — gesturally connected to the Survey figure on the reverse.
One nation, many languages
“Iningizimu Afrika” — South Africa in isiZulu. Each issue carries the country’s name in a different official language of South Africa.
„In Lewis’s felines the boundary between creature and terrain dissolves: the surfaces suggest not fur, but rock, earth, grass and wind — pressed into form.“
From the official SA Mint companion book
Obverse — “Cheetah Head”, the series’ common obverse
“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.
His international career spans exhibitions in Paris, Sydney, Toronto, Houston and San Francisco. He is among the few living artists to have held solo auctions at Christie’s in London.
A unique development process
Three years. Eight stages. One masterpiece.
An ordinary coin begins with a drawing. The African Range began with a three-metre bronze — and went through a process never seen before.
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 photography
A rigorous photography project explores every conceivable angle of the sculpture until the optimal composition for the circular format is found.
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
Dylan Lewis reworks the model with his own hands — every gesture of the original flows directly from the sculptor’s hand into the coin.
Digital integration
Ultra-high-resolution 3D scans merge handcraft and original into a final model under the direction of chief engraver Thinus Scheepers.
CNC & second pass
The model is CNC-cut into plaster again at ultra-high resolution — and the artist refines it once more. A step no standard process includes.
First patterns
April 2024: the first patterns with enhanced relief are struck on copper blanks — proof that the sculptural vision can be minted.
Laser finishing
Stochastic laser frosting with inverted tonality lends the figure raw energy and the landscape atmospheric depth.
„Over 100 years of combined professional experience — in a single model.“
„Perhaps the most detailed model ever produced for South African legal tender.“
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.
Patterns (copper, April 2024) and unpolished die
↑ 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.
The SA Mint has experimented with tonal laser frosting since 2016. The African Range is the culmination of that research.
2026 edition
Strictly limited mintages
The official mintage figures of the entire edition — worldwide. Once sold out, gone forever.
| Metal | Weight | Diameter | Face value | Worldwide mintage | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold 999.9 | 1 kg | 90 mm | 1.000 Rand | 10 | |
| Gold 999.9 | 5 oz | 45 mm | 500 Rand | 50 | |
| Gold 999.9 | 2 oz | 38,65 mm | 200 Rand | 200 | |
| Gold 999.9 | 1 oz (privy mark) | 27 mm | 100 Rand | 50 | |
| Gold 999.9 This coin | 1 oz | 27 mm | 100 Rand | 550 | |
| Gold 999.9 | 1/4 oz | 20 mm | 50 Rand | 2.000 | |
| Silver 999 | 1 kg | 100 mm | 50 Rand | 100 | |
| Silver 999 | 5 oz | 50 mm | 20 Rand | 350 | |
| Silver 999 | 2 oz | 38,65 mm | 10 Rand | 2.000 |
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.
Official legal tender
Struck by the South African Mint, a subsidiary of the South African Reserve Bank — with guaranteed authenticity and mintage.
The collection at Kettner
Choose your Act I
From the 2 oz silver coin to the artist edition with bronze statue — seven ways to become part of the hunt. Five issues through 2030 — and every complete collection begins with this first act.
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.
1 oz Gold African Range Cheetah 2026 – Elegance on Four Paws in Proof
- Strictly limited: Worldwide mintage restricted to a very low mintage of just 500 pieces
- Growth potential: Very high appreciation potential due to strict limitation and strong collector demand
- Rarity: A rare collector's coin for discerning enthusiasts
- Minting quality: Highest possible finish in the Proof (PP) variant
- Design: The cheetah – the fastest land animal on Earth – rendered in finest detail
- Material / Fineness: 1 ounce of purest fine gold at 999/1,000
- Manufacturer: Struck by the renowned South African Mint
- Country of origin: South Africa
Anyone with a passion for sophisticated exclusive collector's coins will find it hard to resist this beauty. The 1 oz Gold African Range Cheetah 2026 tells the story of the African wilderness – on a fine piece of gold that has fascinated humanity for over 6,000 years. A sprinter cast in 999 fine gold, captured on a coin. Rare. Noble. Coveted.
The Cheetah – a design full of tension and grace
The design comes alive. The cheetah – alert, sinewy, poised to spring – adorns the reverse of this coin from the celebrated Gold Big Five world of the South African Mint. Every fine line of the coat, every muscle, every gaze has been rendered with impressive precision. In Proof quality, this wealth of detail truly comes into its own: the mirror-polished surfaces contrast with the frosted relief elements, creating a depth that draws the eye like a magnet.
A cheetah on gold – that is movement, frozen in a precious metal that never loses its lustre.
Why this collector's coin is something truly special
It is the combination that counts. A mintage of just 500 pieces worldwide meets an international collector community that has loved African wildlife designs for years. This scarcity is no coincidence, but a deliberately set limitation. And this is precisely where the appreciation potential lies: the more coveted a piece and the smaller the number of pieces, the more exciting the development becomes for collectors.
Compared to classic bullion coins such as the Krugerrand, which is issued in mintages of millions, the Cheetah coin plays in a completely different league. Here it is not mass production that counts, but rarity. Anyone who secures one of these strictly limited pieces holds a true collector's treasure in their hands.
The key specifications at a glance
- Fine weight: 31.1 g pure fine gold (1 oz)
- Fineness: 999/1,000
- Diameter: 32.69 mm
- Face value: 50 Rand
- Condition: Proof (PP)
- Year of issue: 2026, Big Five series
- Delivered in a premium case including certificate of authenticity
Gold – the money of the gods for millennia
Gold is the world's oldest currency and has outlasted every paper currency in existence. It possesses an intrinsic, inherent value and has never had a price of zero. Those who invest in physical gold secure a piece of permanence that can be passed down from generation to generation. There is also a welcome aspect: investment gold is exempt from VAT, and profits from its sale are generally tax-free after a holding period of at least one year.
Even though the Cheetah coin primarily makes collectors' hearts beat faster, it unites two worlds: the passion of collecting and the enduring value preservation of precious metal. It is both a work of art and a gold treasure – a piece that one not only owns, but admires.
Our tip: With such a very low mintage, speed is of the essence. Pieces like this are often sold out in the blink of an eye. Secure your example of this extraordinary collector's coin before the last paw has sprinted away.
Product depiction may differ from the final product.