1 Ounce Gold African Range Cheetah Artist Edition 2026 (Mintage: 50 | High Relief | Proof | incl. Bronze Statue)
- Lifelike design: fur you could almost touch
- Certificate of authenticity: in elegant wooden box
- Mint: South African Mint
- Lifelike designFur patches, muscles and gaze stand out in vivid detail
- Certificate of authenticityOfficial certificate of authenticity and velvet-lined wooden box
- MintStruck by the renowned South African Mint in South Africa
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 | 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 – Artist Edition with Bronze Statue and a Mintage of Only 50 Pieces
Strictly limited: Only 50 pieces of this extraordinary artist edition exist worldwide.
Growth potential: Enormous appreciation potential due to the strict limitation and the anticipated high demand among connoisseurs.
Rarity: An extremely rare collector's coin that is virtually impossible to find on the market in this combination.
Investment objective: A coveted collector's coin that, owing to its limited mintage, holds significant appreciation potential.
Minting quality: The highest conceivable minting artistry in Proof (PP) – mirror-like surfaces and razor-sharp contours.
Special feature: A sculptural High Relief strike creates a fascinating sense of depth and a unique tactile experience.
Design: A powerfully staged cheetah, the fastest land predator of the African savannah, captured in a moment of pure tension and elegance.
Material / Fineness: Precious fine gold with a purity of 999/1,000 and a fine weight of 31.1 grams – a full ounce of pure precious metal.
Manufacturer: Struck by the renowned South African Mint.
Country of origin: South Africa – the home of great numismatic classics.
Some coins are simply investment products. This one is something entirely different. The 1 oz Gold African Range Cheetah Artist Edition 2026 is a tribute to the wild beauty of Africa – and to the art of minting itself. With a mintage of only 50 pieces worldwide, it ranks among the most coveted exclusive collector's coins of this minting year. Those who own it hold a true rarity in their hands.
A Design Full of Dynamism – the Cheetah in High Relief
The cheetah, caught in a moment of intense concentration, seems to leap right off the coin's surface. This is precisely where the High Relief technique reveals its full splendour: the raised relief strike lends the fur pattern, the tensed musculature, and the watchful gaze a sculptural depth that is simply unattainable with conventional strikes. Combined with the Proof grade, a fascinating interplay of mirror-like surfaces and finely worked, matte design details is created.
This artist edition is not merely a piece of gold – it is a small work of art that captures the wilderness of Africa within 27 millimetres in diameter.
Why Collectors Take Notice of This Mintage
The mathematics of rarity are straightforward. A strictly limited strike of only 50 pieces worldwide meets a globally growing community of passionate collectors. Where supply is this scarce and desirability this high, a tension is created that has always electrified ambitious buyers. This edition undoubtedly belongs to those gold coins whose appeal extends far beyond the pure material value.
Face value: 100 Rand, year of issue 2026
Diameter: 27.00 mm, delivered in a high-quality case
Including official certificate of authenticity – as an artist edition accompanied by a bronze statue
Condition: New in Proof
More Than Collecting Joy: Solid Tangible Asset
Even though the passion for collecting is clearly in the foreground here – in the background there is always the reassuring certainty of owning a genuine tangible asset. Gold is humanity's oldest currency, has shone for millennia, and has never been worth zero. As a physical precious metal, this coin combines the fascination of collecting with the qualities of a proven store of value. This also makes it suitable as a long-term inflation hedge and as a complementary building block for your personal crisis protection.
A pleasant side effect: profits from the sale of physical gold are generally tax-free in Germany after a holding period of at least one year. In addition, investment gold is exempt from VAT. This rare collector's coin therefore combines artistic ambition, the finest material, and attractive appreciation potential.
Secure one of the rare examples of this artist edition – because with a mintage of only 50 pieces, acting swiftly is rarely poor advice. This Cheetah edition will not return.
Product depiction may differ from the final product.
