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.
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.