Category Archives: Top Story
2016 silver dollar marks ushering of global communications
The S.S. Great Eastern will figure prominently on all 2016 silver dollar products while the Mint’s 2016 gold coin features the Parliament buildings fire.
History plays a starring role as the Royal Canadian Mint celebrates a wide range of themes in its first offering of new 2016 collector coins. The historic ocean liner S.S. Great Eastern, which laid out the first transatlantic telegraph cable to link North America and Europe via Newfoundland and Ireland in 1866, figures prominently in... Continue reading →
Several coin clubs celebrating anniversaries
The Moncton Coin Club’s Railway historical medal commemorates the official opening of the First Branch Line of the Intercolonial Railway (ICR) between Moncton and Dorchester in December 1868. The reverse shows a map of the three Maritime Provinces and part of Newfoundland with Moncton’s strategic position shown within a wheel as the ‘Hub of the Maritimes.’
Coin clubs and numismatic associations are the lifeblood of the numismatic hobby. Many clubs have been around for decades, but a few will be celebrating significant anniversaries in 2016, including: the Ingersoll Coin Club (55 years); London Numismatic Society (65 Years), Moncton Coin Club (55 Years); Nickel Belt Coin Club (60 years); Peterborough and District... Continue reading →
Not a typical year-end review
The SNO medal shows the giant acrylic plastic sphere located 2,000 metres below ground and filled with 1,000 tonnes of heavy water, while the reverse shows the Big Nickel Monument and the snowflake shaped Science North Building.
am not a fan of your typical “year-in-review” formula for media of any type. I believe that instead of a recap, readers of print publications at least, might better appreciate some thoughts about what made the previous year different from any other. In relation to numismatics, perhaps a look at how certain events impacted the... Continue reading →
Local coin shows offer big opportunities
Online dealer John Masterson shows off one of his handmade silver ingots at the Scarborough Coin Club Show.
Several small, local shows were held on the weekend of Nov. 7 - 8 in southern Ontario which provided an opportunity to explore the advantages these shows offer collectors. Although these shows were small in comparison to Torex, the Toronto Coin Expo, or shows held at conventions hosted by the Ontario Numismatic Association and the... Continue reading →
CAFNE a big resource for numismatic education
Chris Boyer, vice-president of the Waterloo Coin Society, presented an introduction to coin collecting for children at the Fall 2015 Toronto Coin Expo. The symposium received a donation from CAFNE.
The non-profit charity needs the community’s help with funding By Jeff Fournier The Canadian Association for Numismatic Education (CAFNE) may be one of the best kept secrets and most underutilized resources in Canadian numismatics. This not-for-profit organization has a core mandate that is, quite simply, “to educate the public about numismatics”. This is something that... Continue reading →
1845 BMO halfpenny sets Canadian numismatic record
Lot 129 was this 1845 Bank of Montreal halfpenny (Breton 527), which realized $61,200 and set a new Canadian numismatic record.
Another 170-year-old token sold for more than $60,000 at the recent Fall 2015 Toronto Coin Expo, setting a new numismatic record for the highest-priced Canadian token sold at an auction. Altogether, the auction realized nearly $800,000 from some 950 lots of tokens, coins, medals and banknotes as part of Geoffrey Bell Auctions biannual Coin Expo... Continue reading →
A ‘wonderful discovery’ for numismatists at Pier 21
From left to right: Joe Iorio, Ursula McDonald, Toby Grimminck and Len Buth celebrate their immigration to Canada at Pier 21 in Halifax, N.S. They each arrived in Canada through the iconic pier more than 50 years ago.
As the current European migrant crisis begins boiling over into a global issue, countries like our own are debating whether to allow a new wave of refugees through its borders. In January, the government of Canada announced it would resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years in response to a United Nation’s request... Continue reading →
New $20 commemorative a crowning achievement
The new $20 commemorative, which was unveiled by Richard Wall (left) and Governor General David Johnston (right) is a modified version of Polymer series’ $20 denomination.
On Sept. 9 at about 12:30 p.m. EST, as Queen Elizabeth II added another milestone to an already lengthy list, the Bank of Canada unveiled – for only the third time ever – a commemorative banknote to mark the occasion. Only the third commemorative bill to be issued by the Bank of Canada since it... Continue reading →