Royal Canadian Mint

25 cents

13,7 g

35 mm

Cupronickel

25000 pcs.

The photo-luminescent technology (the glow-in-the-dark)

Julius T. Csotonyi

Royal Canadian Mint

The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt. The reverse features a Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai. These formidable beasts were up to 8 metres (26 feet) long and weighed up to four tons. The most distinctive feature of this amazing beast is its massive head, which is dominated by large bony structures called “bosses” above the nose and eyes (Pachyrhinosaurus means “thick-nosed lizard”) and a hefty frill of bone on the back of its skull festooned with small horns.

Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai was first discovered in 1972 by a science teacher from Grande Prairie, Alberta named Al Lakusta. In what would prove a significant discovery, Lakusta located the dinosaurs in a rich bed of prehistoric bones at Pipestone Creek, Alberta. The bonebed is perched on the steep wall of a valley carved through bedrock, exposing strata of the Wapiti Formation. When the area was finally excavated in 1986, paleontologists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta, were amazed to find an enormous wealth of bones.