Abstract: Reduction of tris-cyclopentadienyl rare-earth metal complexes of the form, (C5Me4H)3Ln [Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy], allowed for the isolation of rare-earth metals in the +2 oxidation state. The metal ions in these complexes adopted unusual 4fn5d1 electron configurations with a notable exception for Dy which adopts a 4f10 configuration based on EPR and UV-Vis spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Reaction of these complexes (La, Ce) with tert-butyl isocyanide generated paramagnetic species which feature multi-line EPR spectra at 298 K and 77 K.