The Royal Mint’s Tales of the Earth continue with its third and final coin commemorating Ice Age giants. Vast glaciers, known as ice sheets, covered large swathes of land during the Pleistocene Epoch, also known as the Ice Age. Away from these ice sheets, greenery flourished, supporting a wide range of life. One of the large mammals, known as megafauna, to live during this time was the giant deer.

Although the species coexisted with the woolly mammoth in more southerly areas, giant deer were also able to survive in warmer climates where woolly mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses were absent. Giant deer were huge, with a standing shoulder height of just under 2 metres – the height of an average doorframe. Their distinguishing feature was their huge antlers, which were the largest of any known species, alive or extinct, and their span measured between 2.5 and 3.5 metres.

This Giant Deer UK 50p coin features a reverse design created by palaeo-artist Robert Nicholls with the expert guidance of palaeobiologist Professor Adrian Lister from the Natural History Museum. The coin is available as gold Proof, silver Proof and Brilliant Uncirculated editions, two of which feature colour printing