Volume 50#21

January 29 – February 11, 2013

The Royal Canadian Mint’s November releases feature an assortment of gold and silver coins celebrating Canadian symbols, history and cultural traditions. Highlights include Lady Peace, Canada’s coat of arms, a one-kilogram silver Maple Leaf and gold issues featuring the yin-yang symbol and Lunar Year of the Goat. (RCM image)

Mint goes the distance for Arctic expedition centenary

The expedition left Canada’s west coast in August 1913 and quickly encountered trouble. The flagship, Karluk, under the famous Capt. Robert Bartlett, became trapped in ice. The ship was carried west in Siberian waters and eventually crushed with the loss of 11 lives. The survivors trekked over ice to Wrangel Island, a distance of 130 kilometres. Bartlett then travelled hundreds of kilometres across the ice to the Siberian mainland and then returned to Alaska to organize a rescue mission. It was September, 1914 before they were eventually reached. Continue reading →

Features

Mint continues to thrive in money-making business

Page 37

Regulars

Focus on Modern Decimals

Page 22

Check out the shows in your area

Page 29

Are you buying or selling?

Page 30

Editorial

A tale of two monetary systems

By the end of this year, all of our notes will be printed on polymer, and “paper” money will be fast vanishing, the 1-cent coin will be gone, and virtually all of our coins will be less than 15 years old. I can’t think of a time since the days of Queen Victoria when our physical money underwent such a dramatic change. This is bigger than the switch from the large cent, bigger than the introduction of the loonie and toonie, and even bigger than the switch away from silver to base metal. This could be considered an entire recreation of this country’s currency, something that hasn’t happened since before Canada was a nation.

Continue reading →