2016 Australia Silver Tiger Shark (1/2 oz) Brilliant Uncirculated

Description

2016 Australia Silver Tiger Shark (1/2 oz) BU

This Silver Tiger Shark coin from Perth Mint is the third and final release of a miniseries of the world’s sharks.  The first two were the Great White Shark at a mintage of 300,000 pieces and the Great Hammerhead Shark at a mintage of 150,000 pieces.  The Tiger Shark is the fourth-largest shark in the world.  They live a solitary life and are mostly nocturnal.  They have the widest spectrum of food source with the reputation as a “garbage eater”.  These apex predators tend to prefer warm water in the ocean as their natural habitats.

On international waters controls on fishing on shark are almost nonexistence. As a result, sharks in general are vulnerable and threatened by humans due to shark finning.

The obverse side of this silver coin shows the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II with Ian Rank-Broadly likeness.  It also shows the face value of “50 CENTS”, country of “AUSTRALIA”, and “ELIZABETH II”.

The reverse side of this coin is an underwater, swimming Tiger Shark with the tiger pattern on its back.  On the young sharks, the tiger stripes are darker.  The darker color fades away as the shark mature.  A grown tiger shark is between 10 to 14 feet long and weighs over 1,000 pounds, up to 1,900 pounds.  The vicious and sharp teeth are not obvious in the design.  Also shown on the rim of the coin are 2016, the mintage year, the weight of ½ oz, and the purity of 9999 SILVER.  Over the top rim shows unmistakably, “TIGER SHARK”.