5 Dollars - Elizabeth II Woolly Mammoth

Part of the RCM's ongoing "Ancient Canada" bullion series, this issue appeared when the Royal Canadian Mint was aggressively expanding its fine gold fractional market — competing directly with established fractional programs from Perth and the U.S. Mint. The woolly mammoth was a deliberate choice: remains have been recovered from permafrost across the Yukon and Northwest Territories, making it unambiguously Canadian in provenance rather than generic prehistoric fauna.

The .9999 fineness — four nines — was the RCM's standard for this series, achieved through a refining process the mint had pioneered for its Maple Leaf program decades earlier.