The face of the coin shows an ibex standing confidently on a rocky outcrop in an abstractly depicted rocky landscape. The design does an excellent job of conveying an idea of the height and breadth of the habitat of this impressive animal, underlined by the lettering CAPRICORN, which looks as if it were carved in stone. The majestic eagle on the picture side forms a fitting counterpart. The coin was designed by the artist Marianne Dietz from Berlin.
The series draws attention to the success of species protection in Germany and shows wild animals that were almost extinct and were able to find new habitats through intensive efforts.
There are nine species of ibex worldwide, three of which are found in Europe. One of these is the Alpine ibex, which is (now) native to the entire Alpine region again: in France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia and Germany. Along with the chamois, the Alpine ibex are the typical hoofed animals of the high mountains. Their habitat is between 1,600 and 3,200 meters above sea level; they primarily inhabit the rocky altitudes between the forest and ice boundaries. With artistic skill they can climb even the steepest slopes.
Ibexes have been hunted by humans since the Stone Age to use their meat, horns, leather, bones and organs for a variety of purposes. The invention of firearms further accelerated the almost complete extinction of the species. On the one hand, they were persecuted as competition to the cattle on the mountain meadows, and on the other hand, because of superstition: almost every part of an ibex's body was said to have a healing effect. At the beginning of the 19th century there was only a small remaining population of around 100 animals that lived in the hunting grounds of the Italian kings in the Gran Paradiso between Aosta Valley and Piedmont.
All ibex found in the Alpine region today are descended from this remaining population. As a result, the genetic diversity of today's Alpine ibex is low. In Germany, the Alpine ibex was considered completely extinct for a long time. Thanks to various settlement projects, there are now six colonies containing around 800 animals. The total population in the Alpine region is around 52,000 animals. The ibex is therefore classified as “not endangered” on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
