Set among Royal Canadian Mint’s June releases
A three-coin set commemorating the life story of Elizabeth II from princess to long-reigning queen highlights the June releases of the Royal Canadian Mint.
Packaged in a biography booklet, each $20 silver coin commemorates a different chapter in the life of Elizabeth II, who died Sept. 8, 2022.
“Our three-coin ‘A Tribute to an Extraordinary Life’ set is a celebration of an extraordinary life,” states a mint release. “Each coin is inspired by a famous photograph and represents a different chapter in the life story of Queen Elizabeth II, from princess to long-reigning monarch.”
The images featured on the obverses include a “Childhood” image with her father, King George VI; a “Princess in the Military” image; and a “Royal Visit” image. The obverse for each 38-millimetre silver coin is marked by a small Tudor rose and includes the four effigies that have graced Canadian coins since the queen’s coronation in 1953.
The total available mintage of the three-coin set is 7,500.
The June releases also include two tributes to the 150th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mount Police.
The first commemorative coin features a colour-over-relief portrait of a female Mountie and a black horse with an engraved mountain backdrop that illustrates the RCMP’s beginnings as the North West Mounted Police in 1873. Crafted in one-ounce pure silver, the 38-mm $20 coin was designed by artist Steve Hepburn. It has a total mintage of 7,500.
Struck in ultra-high relief, the second release is 65.25 mm and features six historic RCMP coin designs on the $50 coin, creating a multilevel/multilayered effect.
“The compilation mixes numismatic and commemorative tributes, and highlights RCMP anniversaries that were previously commemorated on Canada’s coins, including the 25-cent piece from the force’s centennial year (1973),” adds the mint’s description. The curated coin collection has a mintage of 1,250.
The June releases also include the 2023 “Mosaic of Canadian Icons”: a six-coin set featuring an exclusive 50-cent mosaic coin with nine “icon” images including a beaver, a canoe, a skate, a polar bear, owl, a curling stone, moose, and a winter toque. Featured in the centre of the coin is a loon, highlighted in Canadian patriotic red while the other icons are in white.
“Though each icon is ‘wildly’ different from the next, they all serve as symbols of Canada and the Canadian experience, represented by the different elements that form the most famous Canadian emblem of all, the Maple Leaf,” the description states.
The “Everlasting Maple Leaf” returns with a 2023 edition with a 1/20-ounce $10 gold coin. Designed by Lisa Thomson-Khan, the reverse features an engraved intricate arrangement of sugar maple leaves that “serve as an expression of both national pride and a love of nature.” The mint says the 14-mm coin has a mintage of 3,000.
The Mint’s annual collection book with a special edition Uncirculated set winds up the June releases. The book features all the coins released in 2022.
“Proof sets, collector coins, circulation coins, bullion, and more – they’re all featured in the year-in-review showcase, which boasts stunning photography, exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and detailed coin information,” says the mint.
The book, which is serialized and limited to 4,000 copies, also includes a colour poster and the special edition Uncirculated set. The set includes both colour and non-colour versions of the $1 “Celebrating Oscar Peterson” coins, the 175th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Graham Bell coins, and the 50th anniversary of the Summit Series coins. The seventh coin in the set is the $2 “mourning band” marking the death of Queen Elizabeth II.