The World Wildlife Fund Collection

Tanzania and the African Elephant

Quick Quiz

What does elephants, dugongs , manatees, and hyraxes have in common? That are all evolutionary cousins of each other and closely related. Elephants closest living relatives are Hyraxes and they are all under the clad Paenungulata. This has been confirmed not only by cladistics, but also genetic molecular studies.

The evolution of Elephants is a study in the power of evolutionary divergence and radial adaptivity. About.com has an excellent series of webpages on elephant evolution.



http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/mesozoicmammals/a/elephants.htm

There is also a wonderful gallery of of images of prehistoric and current elephants.
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/dinosaurpictures/ig/Elephant-Pictures/



There are three or possibly four current species, two African and one Asian and possibly one more African species in West Africa. In addition to these, Mastodons and Mammoths but have lived into the historical period, to about 2,00 years ago, although largely gone at about 10,000 years ago and squeezed into isolated pockets. The Asian Elephant is more closely related to Woolly Mammoth than the African Elephant. The Scientific name for the African Elephant, or more specifically the African Savanna Elephant is Loxodonta Africana. As a side note, the two species of African Elephant, Bush and Forrest, as as closely related as the Asian Elephant the Mammoth.

Tanzania has release in 1986 the 100 Shilingi 0.925 Silver Proof coin celebrating the threatened African elephant. Home to Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania is a wonderful East African nation which shares Lake Victoria on in the North and just south of Kenya and East of the Congo. The coin is minted by the British Royal mint and weighs 19.44 grams and a diameter of 36.00mm.

This is a truly outstanding coin and unlike most world coins, the obverse is absolutely as wonderful and the reverse. The obverse is of the President Julius Nyerere and is one of the few coins to note depict a Caucasian or European face. Not only that, but the image beautifully depicts realistically an obviously man African Decent without stereotype and without the troubles that many artisits have in depicting Africans. it reminds me of Rembrandt’s "Two Moors" in The Mauritsuis, one of the great museums in the world but unfortunately closed until 2014.



Two Moors is a wonderful work by Rembrandt, sensitive and deep in humanity, especially considering that Rembrandt has probably never seen a Black African.

I have two images of the obverse, one head on and usual, and one from a slant so one can appreciate fully the depth and beauty of the devices.

 

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Full Image worth seeing

 

24 of 25 - ONE LEFT

 

Your development in the photography and imaging has visibly grown through this whole thread, which began on July 9th, BTW - 29 days ago.

 

http://www.mrbrklyn.com/wwf/elephant_r_a.png
http://www.mrbrklyn.com/wwf/elephant_r_b.png
http://www.mrbrklyn.com/wwf/elephant_r_c.png

 

Ok, I'll comment. Beautiful coins and photography. In your latest postings/photos, I like the way you used the natural habitat as a back drop.

I am a big wildlife\conservationist myself and in this case, even in this economy, I think more Spending on wildlife\conservation is needed

When the polar bears are gone, they will be gone for good, no second chances?

Cheers
Mike

 

I personally like the titbits of writing on the evolution theory on the different species.

 

I'm personally glad to be almost done. I don't think anyone really cares about this work, but it gives me a sense of satisfaction just to finish it. Then i think I'll sign off for a while. reading and posting here makes me grumpy.

Amanda

 

call me when you have time

 

That was one of the first objections I received.

 

Sometimes when I see a question in a coin forum and "sort of" know an answer, I may search in books or online, and then write a reply - only to get a short "Thanks" or no reaction at all. But that research I also do for myself; I may dig something up that is interesting (at least for me) and learn something new. Also, not everyone is good at ooh-and-aah posts so seeing your photos and reading your background information does not necessarily result in lots of replies. But that does certainly not mean nobody is interested in the WWF Collection ...

Christian

 

Perhaps. The views are not very high either, so I have to conclude nobody is reading it. But I'll finish tonight, if I don't become distracted with any more wrong half dimes.

Amanda

 

It is an interesting collection, please continue, also can you please give us more pictures of the set / box / and COAs

Thanks ..

 

NOT very high? Over 1500 is not high? The W&A Coins section is of the least traveled and your thread has a lot of views. I personally read each one and enjoyed almost all. (I really don't like amphibians)
But I really like them. Continue on, Amanda. Can't wait for the final one to read.

 

The Republic of Mexico and Danaus Plexippus (what??)

I can remember in the year of 1975, when my children were still in grade school and playing with blocks on the living room floor, that seemingly marvelous news came over the television with full color images of the miracle of the Mexican Migration point for all the eastern North American Monarch Butterflies located in Michoacan, Mexico. This was amazing news. Who knew that Butterflies migrated, let alone that nearly billions of them converged in a single forested area. Dr. Frederick Urquhart knew, but he couldn't find where all the Monarch butterflies disappeared to until two of his volunteers, Ken Brugger and Catalina Aguada found the eighth wonder of the world on remote mountain top near the residence of the Purépecha Indians.

Since that time, Mexico has made efforts to preserve the habitat of the Monarch's winter hibernation spot, and have made logging in the area illegal. In 1980, President Lopez Portillo issues presidential decrees declaring protection of the butterflies all across the nation.

More than 139,000 acres with oak, pine-oak, pine, and oyamel fir forests have been made a reserve and two buffer zones. Unfortunately, the local peoples still log the areas even at great risk and government control, as is often the case in Mexico, has been spotty. In resent years, single events have killed off millions of the insects at once, and they're future well-being is dependent on an intact sizable forest that can sustain a microclimates that the Monarch Butterfly needs to survive.

[video]http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/animals-pets-kids/bugs-kids/monarch-butterflies-kids/[/video]

[video]http://video.pbs.org/video/1063682334/[/video]
http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/mexico/themonarchbutterflyreserve.html
http://www.monarchmonitoringproject.com/





http://www.monarchwatch.org/


this final coin, perhaps the most elegant of the set, was minted proudly in the Mexican City Mint, 30,000 proof coins of a heafty 31.103 grams of 0.720 silver. It is a 100 Pesos denomination

Check it out




















DONE!!

 

Thank you for the compliment. I'll try to get it done for you later in the week.

 

You picked a nice background for the images of a well designed coin. In two of the photos (monarch_twob_o.jpg, monarch_twoc_o.jpg) that results in a strange reflection, but the others are great. By the way, the modern Mexican coins are minted in San Luis Potosí as far as I know ...

Christian

 

I think that was my special affect

Might be. the certificate that comes with the coin says
MINT: Mexico City Mint

But this was in 1986.

Thanks for the kind words.

Amanda

 

I really like the Mexican coin, nice choice to be the last one :yes: