Product Details

Abourma Rock Art is the first issue in the (revived) Prehistoric Art series.  From the 3 kilometer stretch of thousands of Abourma rock carvings it shows the largest stone ‘The Zoo’. This coin is struck using enhanced Smartminting©️ technology which results in stunning ultra high relief on the reverse. The coin has an antique finish with a colored motif and is struck from 3 oz pure silver.

It has a limited mintage of only 499 pcs worldwide and comes in a beautiful box with Certificate of Authenticity.

Coin description:

The reverse of the coin depicts ‘The Zoo’, one of the rocks of the Abourma Rock Art site with a precise representation of the carving.  At the bottom the writing “ABOURMA ROCK ART SITE” (the name of the coin) and at the right “2023” (the year of issue).

The obverse has a special coat of arms for Djibouti.  There are images of prehistoric people carving rock art and painting cave paintings.  At the bottom is written “PREHISTORIC ART” (the name of the series). At the top quarter is the coat of arms of Djibouti embedded with: “REPUBLICQUE DE DJIBOUTI” (issuing country), “200 FRANCS” (the face value), “.999 AG” (the purity of the silver) and “93.3 g” (the weight of the coin).

Background information:

Prehistoric art was produced by ancient civilizations until they developed writing or other methods of record keeping. This means prehistoric art, can be younger in some parts of the world than in others. The oldest art, engraved shells, dates up to half a million years ago. Earliest rock art and drawings in general date to 40000-75000 years ago with some pieces as old as 40000 years.

The Abourma Rock Art site is a huge, 3-kilometer stretch of rocks with hundreds of carvings in the north of Djibouti on the Makarrassou Massif. These rock carvings tell a story about the society at that time. Some images represent messages of the social class and the interactions with nature and hunting. There are many wild animals present like elephants, giraffes, hippos and rhinos but also domesticated animals as well.

The site was rediscovered in 2008 by a French archeologist. He was working in north Djibouti at various small rock art sites when, at a restaurant in Randa for lunch, the waiter asked what he was doing.  He showed pictures of the rock art and the waiter said: “We have so many of these as well nearby”. The next day, after a 5 hour trek, he was shocked at the vast examples of ancient carvings.  In 2014 a road was constructed cutting the walk to just 2 hours. It still takes a total of 6 hours to get to the site from Djibouti city today.  It’s listed to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Highlights:

Struck from 3 oz .999 pure silver
Special Coat of Arms
Unique concept series
Super low mintage
Smartminting high relief