# 1504 - Canadian Wildlife - Part 67

The info below comes from the Royal Canadian Mint's COA (Certificate of Authenticity) of this coin or from the book Canadian Collector Coins, vol 2, 8th Edition, by M. Drake or https://en.numista.com/ , or https://www.wikipedia.org/.

Today we will continue the series called "Canadian Wildlife".

The Royal Canadian Mint is known by its high quality work and the enormous number of commemorative coins issued each year. Among these commemoratives we find many, individual or in series, under the theme "wildlife".

Canada, with its vast lands and seas, is the home of a varied fauna and that will be showed in this series.

I will try to post land animals, sea animals and birds, in that order.

The sixty seventh coin is a 2014 CAD $10 "Bison".

This coin weights 15.87g (1/2oz) with 99.99% silver purity and Matte Proof finish. Its mintage was 16,588 units and the issue price was CAD $39.95. It is the eighth coin in the "O Canada Set Two" series.

The North American continent's heaviest land animal is the American bison (Bison bison). For millennia, the American bison and its ancestor dominated much of central North America, from what is now Alaska, down through the Canadian prairies and American Midwest, as far south as central Mexico and as far east as near the Appalachians of the United States. In the tens of millions, they wandered along ancient feeding routes so well worn that they are still visible from the air today. Many of these routes, particularly in the United States, were eventually used as wagon trails and, later, for railway beds. By the end of the nineteenth century, though, over-hunting and large-scale exterminations by European settlers had reduced bison numbers from more than 60 million to only a few hundred. Concerted conservation efforts throughout the twentieth century helped to bring the numbers of wild bison up in both Canada and the United States. In total, there are estimated to be about 30,000 non-domesticated bison in Canada and the United States today and several hundred thousand raised on ranches.

The reverse design by Canadian artist Trevor Tennant presents a portrait of three adult bison and a bison calf in their natural habitat. The largest adult, furthest from the viewer, has its head slightly raised as though listening and watching for danger.