As a child I grew up in a landlocked state in the United States. We lived right next to a mountain with a river not to far away to go fishing. It was a lot of fun. However my experience with the tropical bird the toucan was pretty much limited to Toucan Sam selling Fruit Loop breakfast cereal. Fruit Loops is a great cereal! It was a pretty sheltered childhood until we moved to Orange County in California.
While I was living in the Caribbean I went on a dive trip to Belize and picked up a few nice commemorative coins which I have been sharing. This one is really cool because it's a toucan! Until I traveled to Belize I had never seen one outside of a zoo, they are amazingly beautiful birds in the rain forest. You would think that all the color would be a bad thing, but in the dense rainforests of Central America it's actually great camouflage. Anyway, here's the toucan coin:
About the coin:
Country: Belize
Mint: The Franklin Mint, Pennsylvania, USA
Year: 1974
Mintage: 31,000
Strike type: Silver Proof
Series: Avifauna of Belize
Denomination: Five Dollars
Composition: silver 92.5%
Weight: 26.4 grams
Diameter:37.8 mm
Edge: Reeded
Obverse: Belize coat of arms with lettering BELIZE SUB UMBRA FLOREO 1974 FM ( I flourish in the shade! is the translation from Numista)
Reverse: Keel-billed toucan on a branch
This is part of a silver proof mint set produced by The Franklin Mint, I have shared most of the coins I own from the set already. They are beautiful coins, unfortunately this one has some oxidation from being in a high humidity environment for too long, i.e. Belize. It's a great set to collect as it's not too badly priced, and on occasion you can find the whole set together but they tend to go for higher prices.
An interesting fact about toucans is there are forty one species of them all in Central and South America. The one depicted on this coin in the keel-billed toucan. They live from southern Mexico down through Central America into Colombia and Venezuela. The most prominent feature is of the the large bill. It may look large and awkward but it's in fact very light and used for reaching fruit that they toss into the air and swallow whole. While fruit makes up most of their diet they also will eat insects, lizards, small birds and eggs.
They're a medium size bird measuring 42 to 55 cm (17 to 22 inches) with the large bill making up much of their body length at 12 to 15 cm (5 to 6 inches.) They live in small groups of six to twelve birds and live inside of the hollow of tree often crowded together. The male and female share in incubating and caring for their young until they are ready to live outside the nest, which is also inside of a hollowed out tree. Unfortunately habitat loss is becoming a threat to their population and are considered a vulnerable species. Hopefully the countries where they are found will attempt to put some habitat protections in place, but it can be difficult to do with expanding human populations. They are spectacular birds aren't they? Beautiful!
I hope you enjoyed my post today, it was a lot of fun to put together. I honestly knew almost nothing about toucans prior to my research this morning! If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments please feel free to leave them below. Thank you everyone for you support! Have a great weekend!
Keep on stacking!
Witnesses:
And my disclaimer:
Gold and silver stacking can be a fun hobby but isn't for everyone. You can lose money. I'm not a financial advisor and this isn't financial advice, please always do your own research before spending your hard earned money.
References:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces21400.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keel-billed_toucan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_toucans
Re-blog lottery
Now for the winner of the re-blog lottery! Today we had 30 people re-blog my post, thank you so much! You guy are the best! The people who re-blogged were:
Voluntary daily reminder list for those who request to be on it:
If you want to be added to the list as well just feel free to ask!
Thank you everyone! I have been working to improve my engagement and all of you have really helped out! If you have any recommendations or suggestions please feel free to let me know. I'm always looking to improve my posts.
Good luck to everyone!
And since I didn't post yesterday today I will do two spins of the wheel, so two winners today!
And the Wheel of Names results:
Congratulations
You will receive 3 HSBI units!
Now for today's re-blog lottery! You just need to re-blog my post you will be placed on the Wheel of Names for a spin to possibly win 3 HSBI units! Just one prize for the lucky winner. An upvote is not required but is always greatly appreciated. Bots aren't allowed to win the prize. Contest ends at 14:00 (2 PM) California Pacific time tomorrow. If I somehow missed your re-blog please let me know and I'll add you to the next draw.
What are HSBI units? They are units that you can purchase to sponsor someone and you in turn receive a unit as well. This way we both benefit! They give you occasional upvotes on your posts for a lifetime, and the more you accumulate the more often you receive upvotes and the bigger they can be. You can read some more here:
If you have more questions feel free to ask.
