Hello everyone, it's been a very long time since I've looked at coins, and a very long time since I've posted on this site. Found some world coins which is fun to look at, so having said this I just had to ask am I seeing things? I found this 1996 2 dollar coin and when I looked at the Polar Bear it looks like it has 3 rear paws, LOL! What do you all think? Thank you! Oh forgot what does the B stand for? Is this a mint mark? Hope you can zoom in on the back legs of the Polar bear
Thank you, never thought of looking them up on google. I found this information No, the polar bear design on the Canadian 1996 two-dollar coin (toonie) does not depict the bear with three back legs. The design, created by Brent Townsend, features an adult polar bear standing on an ice floe and accurately portrays a polar bear's anatomy with its natural four limbs. There is, however, a known counterfeit version of the 1996 toonie circulating that features a defect on the front right paw, sometimes described as a "split-toe" or "claw," that distinguishes it from a genuine coin. This counterfeit issue is unrelated to the number of legs depicted on the polar bear. But I did look at photo's of this coin and it appears they all look the same as what I have posted. Thank you
I was wondering how variety collectors, who spot differences that are not much more than air molecules, managed to miss a hind leg for almost thirty years.
I can see that the artist was making 2 legs, but because they are so close together it looks like three. I doubt there are dies with 2 legs and 1 with 3. As mentioned an error like that would not go unnoticed for 30 years. It would be discovered the 1st day it hit circulation.
It looks like 4 legs to me. The leg in question is the same size as the front leg. His fur is just curved from laying down.