An updated obverse design will appear on all of Canada’s 2023 collector coins and bullion until the Royal Canadian Mint adopts a new permanent obverse.
First used in 2003, Susanna Blunt’s effigy of Queen Elizabeth II will now be joined by a special design featuring the double dates “1952” and “2022.” Four pearls separating the dates symbolize the four effigies of Queen Elizabeth II used on Canadian coins throughout her 70-year reign. The Mint launched the new obverse design on the first numismatic coins of the year (“RCM opens 2023 with annual issues,” CCN Vol. 60 #22, Jan. 31, 2022).
Before Blunt, a China-born, Vancouver-based portrait artist, the previous effigy came out in 1990 with a design by Dora de Pedery-Hunt. Born in Hungary, Pedery-Hunt also held Canadian citizenship, so her design marked the first time a Canadian citizen produced an official effigy of the queen.
Britain’s Royal Mint designed the two earlier effigies, introduced in 1965 and 1953 with designs by Arnold Machin and Mary Gillick, respectively. They bore resemblance to the effigies used on other contemporary coinage issued by British Commonwealth countries.