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2023 $50 Canadian Collage: Four Seasons Fine Silver (No Tax)
Spring, summer, fall and winter—this eye-catching collage invites you to step into the Canadian landscape and experience the four seasons that shape life in Canada. From spring’s bright hues and sun-soaked summer greenery, to fall’s foliage-led colour change and winter’s snowy slumber, all four seasons unfold before your eyes, forming a spectrum of colours within the maple leaf that gives shape to our celebration of Canada’s natural beauty.
It isn’t just the landscape that undergoes a colourful transformation each year—some animals do too! Several northern mammals, including the Arctic fox and Peary caribou, are known to exchange their summer coats for heavier, whiter fur that keeps them warm in the winter.
Fiery reds, burnt orange and golden yellows—the colours we associate with fall and fall leaves are mostly present in the landscape during spring and summer too, they’re just masked by chlorophyll, a green pigment that is vital for photosynthesis. (The red colours are produced in the autumn, in response to bright light and plant sugars in the leaves.) As summer turns to fall and sunlight decreases, leaves stop producing chlorophyll, which fades away to reveal other colours caused by various pigments: xanthophyll for yellow, carotenoid for orange, and anthocyanin for red. And once those pigments break down, only tannins remain in the leaves, resulting in a brown colour.
Designed by artist Caitlin Lindstrom-Milne, your coin’s reverse features a composite of landscape features from across Canada, framed by the outline of a black maple (Acer nigrum) leaf and backed by Canada geese (Branta canadensis) flying in a V formation—a sign of the changing seasons in Canada. The four-season view begins with a spring scene on the left, where a tundra swan (Cygnus columbianus) swims past flowery meadows and mountains under a colourful morning sky. The scene transitions to a bright summer day, as a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) catches its next meal. Beneath the migrating geese in the sky, the green foliage turns to red, orange, brown and yellow in the fall view, in which the setting sun casts its glow on the grasslands and the iconic bison (Bison bison). The final view, with its sleepy Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), captures the tranquil beauty of winter in Canada, while an iceberg adrift in the ocean hints at the eventual return of spring.
The obverse features the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt. The obverse also bears a special marking that includes four pearls symbolizing the four effigies that have graced Canadian coins and the double date of her reign.
Specifications:
Item Number: 207952
Mintage: 2,500
Composition: 99.99% pure silver with colour over engraved relief
Weight: 94.25 g
Diameter: 55 mm
Face Value: $50
Finish: Proof
Edge: Serrated
Artist: Caitlin Lindstrom-Milne (reverse), Susanna Blunt (obverse)
Special Features:
• A Canada for all seasons! Celebrate the spectacular beauty of Canada through all four seasons! The follow-up to the 2022 Canadian Collage, the 2023 maple leaf-shaped collage is beautifully engraved on a 3 oz. 99.99% pure silver canvas.
• Colour over engraved relief. Each season has an established colour association, and those seasonal hues mirror the shades found in nature. They are well represented in this collage, where the use of colour over the engraved relief and changing colour schemes reflects nature’s cyclical transformation.
• A Canadian Maple Leaf! On the coin’s reverse, the collage is shaped like the leaf from a black maple, one of 10 Canadian maple species.
• Inspiring Pride. The coin’s collage illustrates how nature is a key part of Canada’s identity. It features a composite of landscapes and wildlife species from across Canada, and it seamlessly combines them to ensure a smooth transition from one seasonal view to the next.
• Low mintage. Only 2,500 coins are available to collectors worldwide.
Packaging:
The coin comes encapsulated and presented in a black Royal Canadian Mint branded clamshell case with black beauty box.
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