5 oz Gold African Range Cheetah 2026 (Mintage: 50 | High Relief | Proof)
- Vivid design: fur and tear trail
- Great tradition: South African Mint
- With certificate: delivered in a case
- Vivid designThe resting cheetah was engraved with great precision
- Great traditionFrom one of the world's most storied mints
- With certificateCertificate of authenticity and case document its origin
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 This coin | 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 | 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.
5 oz Gold African Range Cheetah 2026 – A Majestic Cheetah in the Highest Perfection
- Strictly limited: Worldwide mintage of only 50 pieces
- Growth potential: Very high appreciation potential due to the strict limitation and enormous collector demand
- Rarity: An extremely rare collector's coin reserved for only a few enthusiasts worldwide
- Investment objective: A rare collector's coin that carries high appreciation potential due to its strict limitation
- Design: A majestic cheetah of the South African savannah – alert, sleek, full of grace
- Minting quality: Highest possible finish in Proof (PP)
- Special feature: High Relief minting for an exceptionally three-dimensional appearance and feel
- Material / Fineness: 155.52 g of pure gold with a first-class fineness of 999/1,000
- Manufacturer: South African Mint – one of the most storied mints in the world
- Country of origin: South Africa, home of the "Big Five" and the African Range series
Sometimes in the world of numismatics, one encounters a piece that takes your breath away. The exclusive collector's coin from the renowned African Range impressively demonstrates what happens when the highest minting artistry meets an uncompromising limitation. With a mintage of only 50 pieces worldwide, we enter the exclusive circle of true rarities – those pieces about which one later says they managed to acquire them just in time.
The Cheetah – Fleeting Hunter in Solid Gold
The design captures a moment that in the wild lasts barely the blink of an eye. The cheetah, the fastest land animal on our planet, appears to be at rest here – and yet one can feel the coiled energy beneath its coat. The characteristic spotted markings, the distinctive tear streaks along the muzzle, and the watchful gaze have been rendered by the engravers of the South African Mint with a meticulousness that is second to none. Thanks to the High Relief technique, the cheetah literally emerges from the coin's surface – a three-dimensional interplay of light and shadow that one longs to touch.
Anyone who has ever held a Proof coin with a raised high relief in their hands knows: here, art and precious metal merge into something truly unique.
A Minting That Leaves Nothing to Be Desired
The Proof finish represents the highest conceivable minting quality. Mirror-like surfaces, frosted relief, razor-sharp contours – every detail underscores the exceptional standard of these extraordinary gold coins. With an impressive fine weight of 155.52 g and a diameter of 38.60 mm, this heavyweight sits solidly and substantially in the hand. The included case together with a certificate of authenticity completes the experience and documents the unique provenance.
Why This Rarity Is So Coveted
Noble gold has accompanied humanity for over 6,000 years as the oldest store of value in existence – but here it is about far more than the pure metal. It is about the fascination of the rare. A very low mintage such as this ensures that demand exceeds supply many times over – precisely the constellation from which very high appreciation potential arises in collectible pieces.
- Investment gold enjoys VAT exemption in Germany
- After a holding period of one year, capital gains are generally tax-free
- Physical gold is tradeable worldwide and possesses an enduring intrinsic value
Of course, such a rare collector's coin can also serve as a long-term inflation hedge or as a tangible crisis protection. The focus here, however, is on the passion for collecting – the wonderful feeling of owning one of only 50 examples worldwide. Those who value true exclusivity should not hesitate: with only 50 pieces, availability is extremely limited – and once sold out, such an opportunity rarely returns.
Product depiction may differ from the final product.
