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Canada's Centennial Coins and Currency.
Even while nearly overwhelmed with demand for circulating coin and numismatic proof-like sets in 1964, the government of Canada initiated the project of a special set of coins marking Canada's 100 th year of Confederation three years hence. In 1964, Finance Minister Walter Gordon announced a competition open to all Canadian artists, sculptors and designers residing anywhere , for the six designs to appear on the reverses of the different denominations 1¢ through silver dollar in 1967. The closing of the competition was March 31, 1965 and the panel of judges under the chairmanship of Norval Parker, Master of the Royal Canadian Mint, was a blue-ribbon one: R.B. Bryce (Deputy Minister of Finance); Dr. Charles Comfort (Director, National Gallery of Canada); Dr. W.K. Lamb (Dominion Archivist); Miss Eleanor Milne (Ottawa sculptor); Marius Plamondon (Quebec City sculptor); Louis Rasminsky (Governor , Bank of Canada); Douglas Ferguson (numismatist, Rock Island, P.Q.); Alan Fleming (Toronto), Clair Stewart (Toronto) and Julien Hebert (Montreal) were all three prominent designers and graphic artists. There was a $2500 first prize for each winning design. It was probably assumed that the resulting designs would be by a number of different artists but as things turned out, a unified series of wildlife themes by Alex Colville was chosen for the entire set. Runners-up in the competition were: Roland D. Guilbault of Jonquiere, Que.; Eric Aldwinckle of Toronto; Arthur Price of Cyrville, Ont; and (the then late) Elizabeth Wynn Wood of Willowdale, Ont. Not in the top five but a competitor all the same was Thomas Shingles, recently retired chief engraver of the RCM (although his obverse design for the Centennial Medal was successful). Retired to Victoria, B.C., Shingles gave a speech at the Vancouver Numismatic Society a short time later in which he pointed out that although the Colville designs were very good indeed, the fact they were “central designs” might cause problems with “metal ghosting” unless they were cut in shallow relief. Since there was no marked problem in this regard, it would seem this course of action was followed by the Mint
“Flat Fields” (Lg. Beads) A points to denticle “Concave Fields” (Sm. Beads) A betwn denticles Or were they completely? – the Mint Report for 1966 says that a number of “test runs” were made on the 1967 coins and there exist very rare “flat-field” silver dollars. Apparently, as Shingles feared, either the goose or the Queen's portrait (perhaps both) did not strike up perfectly with the normal flat-faced die and had to be changed to those with a slightly rounded face. These “convex” dies would strike a coin with a slightly depressed (concave) field, the extra metal sufficient to cause a good impression on both sides. Usually ignored in standard catalogues, the rare “flat fields” are sometimes listed as “Large Beads” (which they actually are) in some auction catalogues. But the best means by which the two may be differentiated is by the positioning of the lettering vis-à-vis the beading: “A of DOLLAR” points at (large) bead = RARE; “A of DOLLAR” points between (small) beads = COMMON. So far as we know, this was the only denomination where a problem seems to have existed. The winner of the competition, Alex Colville, was born in Toronto in 1921 but grew up in Amherst, Nova Scotia. He was a Canadian war artist 1944-6 and later taught at Mount Allison University in Sackville, 1946-63. By 1965, he had had three one-man shows of his work in New York and two in Toronto. His paintings, described as having a “magic realism”, hung in six Canadian galleries as well as the New York Museum of Modern Art. His paintings are nearly always of common objects and ordinary people, yet treated in a style the art critic Robert Fulford described as “painted with such intensity that they soar far beyond anything that we call realism”. Thus his choice of six Canadian creatures, all commonplace, yet with each possessing attributes that he felt expressed different aspects of “being Canadian”. In his own words, he made the following remarks regarding these designs: “In considering what would be most suitable for Centennial coins, I decided that only the world of nature would provide themes with sufficient depth of meaning. It is a question of finding images which are worthy and appropriate for use in celebrating our country's Centennial, images which will express not merely some particular time, place or event, but a whole century of Canada, and even more: natural creatures provide this enduring and meaningful continuum. “Admittedly, there have been persons and human events in the century of our history which could be memorialized, but I believe that these are of more fleeting and doubtful significance. The elements of nature have been, and are, here, all around us; they are our context; I would even say that nature is a kind of golden metre against which human acts are measured. It is no accident that animals have appeared as powerful symbols in the life and art of man from the beginning of history. Thus I believe that nature provides us with that which is most worthy of being, so to speak, ‘held up', praised and remembered. “I therefore decided to use birds, animals, fish, as my images. I wished to use creatures which are common, which had certain moving or symbolic associations and which had not been made trite by repeated and, perhaps, unthinking usage.
“ One Dollar: The Canada goose seems appropriate for the dollar since it is one of our most majestic creatures and is also particularly Canadian. There are other associations with travelling over great spaces, and a kind of serene dynamic quality in this bird. “ Fifty Cent: The wolf, unfortunately no longer common, is here symbolic of the vastness and loneliness of Canada, and thus our tradition and, to a degree, of our present condition. Yet the wolf is not a pathetic creature. “ Twenty-five Cent: The wildcat (bobcat) seemed appropriate for this coin, which is large enough for the subtle shape of this common, although rarely seen animal. It is expressive of a certain intelligent independence and capacity for formidable action.
“ Ten Cent: Being the smallest coin, this requires a simple and unambiguous image. I used the mackerel, one of the most beautiful and streamlined fish, common on both coasts. The fish has ancient religious implications; I think of it as a symbol for continuity. “ Five Cent: The rabbit (varying hare) is common, much loved by children, perhaps because of its vulnerability. It survives by alertness and speed, and is symbolically connected with ideas of fertility, new life and promise – it is thus a future, or united, animal .
“ One Cent: For this I wished to use a very common bird, but one with symbolic overtones. I selected the dove (rock dove) – very common, in cities as well as the country, as the pigeon, and having associations with spiritual values and also with peace.” The images above are of Colville's plaster models copied in the reducing machine to produce the master production tools, such as the production punches. In actual size, they are probably in the order of 8-12 inches in diameter, as normal. Close examination shows that they are unusual in that Colville included the rim denticles, something that was usually left out on plaster models and applied later to the steel master tools by a specialized device in a lathe. But present on the models or not, they were not reproduced; notice that Colville's denticles have been replaced by a ring of beads on the dollar, 50-, 25- and 10-cent piece. They were probably changed on the 5- and 1-cent pieces as well, although the finished coin continued to use denticles instead of beading.
During 1966, preparation went ahead for various Centennial numismatic projects. On May 6, 1966, Finance Minister Mitchell Sharp announced that the Mint would produce a special gold presentation set in 1967, consisting of a $20 gold piece as well as the six subsidiary denominations housed in a black morocco leather presentation case. Due to U.S. gold restrictions, the Mint would be unable to accept orders for this set from that country. The six lower denominations with the wildlife reverses were made current by proclamation of 10 November, 1966. An appended (but prior-dated to 5 October, 1966) proclamation did the same for the $20 gold piece, fully describing it and specifying that its weight was to be amended to a standard of 282 grains while its fineness was taken to be as before (i.e., .900 fine gold). While it seems that the gold coin could have been considered legal tender, it's doubtful that any attempt to pass one was ever made. At the time, its bullion value was somewhat below face and yet the set, with a face value of $21.91, cost a full $40.00 issue price. Since that time, many have been broken out of the sets and sold individually, the continuing general rise in the price of gold dictating that it trades at something like 15 times face at present prices. In all a total of 334,288 such sets (catalogue) or 337,512 (Mint Report) were sold during the Centennial Year. With an eye to the American market – and those who couldn't afford gold – there was yet another cased set, consisting of a silver Centennial medallion plus the six subsidiary coins in a red leather case announced on 20 July, 1966. Sales for the year were 70,583. There were also the ordinary 6-coin proof-like sets in pliofilm, of which 961,887 were sold. Above and beyond these collectors' coins were the ordinary pieces for circulation. Simply because they were of the Centennial, the mintage of 1967 showed a slight recovery over that of the previous year – but nothing like the big figures from the halcyon days of the Great Canadian Coin Boom a few years previously. But the fates conspired to ensure that the Centennial silver pieces never circulated to the extent intended. On May 15, 1967, the U.S. imposed controls prohibiting the export of silver except under license. In this way much of their coinage silver would remain within their national boundaries since it was already illegal to melt U.S. coin under the regulations regarding “defacement of coins”. But they could be exported and melted outside the country; it was this hole that the U.S. was plugging. At the same time, the U.S. removed the price controls they imposed on silver bullion and world price rose immediately and dramatically. The result was that Canada's silver Centennial coins soon had their bullion value surpass face and almost immediately it was necessary to reduce the fineness from .800 to .500. This was actually a stopgap measure since a proclamation of June 2 already specified Canada's coins 10-cents through dollar to be coined in nickel (orders were already placed with the Sherritt Mint for nickel blanks for the 10- and 25-cent pieces to be struck in 1968). At the same time, Canada imposed her own silver export controls to protect the national supply. Oddly, there seems to be no legislation specifically lowering the silver fineness for the time being. It was apparently “just done”. It was only the 10- and 25-cent pieces that had dual finenesses in 1967; the silver dollar and 50-cent piece ceased to be coined for the rest of the year, so all are .800 fine (when they did reappear in 1968, they were only in pure nickel and reduced size). An exception to this statement were those pieces required to finish filling the ordered sets; that mintage extended even into 1968. Perhaps it was thought impolitic to have the Centennial coins partly in silver and partly in nickel, but there was also the consideration that for the time being, the RCM was not equipped to handle nickel blanks of the size of the 50-cent and dollar. At the time, however, it was a wise move to lower the fineness with no way to tell which was .800 and which was .500 on the coin itself. No doubt extensive circulation would have caused the baser pieces to turn into an ugly blotchy gray, characteristic of British coin in .500 silver after 1919. But the Canadian silver pieces were never in circulation long enough for this to happen. As might be expected, these last silver coins disappeared into innumerable petty hoards almost as soon as they appeared, especially when it became known that Canadian coinage would become nickel some time in 1968. To this day the silver circulation-coin from 1967 and '68 are typically found in not much less than AU. The following numbers of 1967-dated coins were struck (including those for numismatic purposes): Gold. $20. (.900 gold) 197,745 struck in 1967; 139,943 in 1968. Total: 337,688 Silver: 1 Dollar (.800 silver) 6,909,237 struck 1967; 280,803 in 1968 Total: 7,190,040 [Note: August, 1967 - 141,741 dollars dated 1967 were melted] 50 Cents (.800 silver) 4,211,659 in 1967; 280,803 in 1968. Total: 4,492,462 [Note: 264 pieces dated 1967 were melted in August, 1967] 25 Cents (.800 silver) 29,128,142 in 1967; 280,803 in 1968. Total: 29,408,945 “ (.500 silver) Total: 19,727,358 10 Cents (.800 silver) 32,309,135 in 1967; 280,803 in 1968. Total: 32,589,938 “ (.500 silver) 30,689,080 in 1967; 5,650,000 in 1968. Total: 36,339,080 Nickel . 5 Cents. (pure nickel). 36,595,771 in 1967; 280,803 in 1968. Total: 36.876,574 Bronze . 1 Cent (98% copper, 1.5% zinc, .5% tin) 344,856,994 in 1967; 280,803 in 1968. Total: 345,137,797 In all cases, the 1967 coins struck in 1968 consisted of those needed to fill numismatic orders left over from 1967. It should be noted that the silver coins included in all such sets were of .800 fine silver, no matter that the corresponding circulation coins had been dropped to .500 for some time. * * * * *
There was an out-and-out Centennial Medallion by Thomas Shingles and Dora de Pedery Hunt that appeared in two forms: as a artificially-toned lacquered brass piece for presentation to all Canadian school children (5,656,695 were struck) as well as in sterling silver for sale and other presentations (217,600 were struck). The school medals were individually packaged in cellophane and distributed in June, 1967 to all Canadian students Grades 1 through 13 by the provincial education departments and territorial councils . * * * * * * Special Canadian numismatic issues for the Centennial Year were not limited to coins and medals – there were also special notes from the Bank of Canada as well. The notes were only of the $1 denomination but took two different forms: those with the regular serial numbers in red and those whose serial numbers appeared as “1867 1967” in red.
The “No Serial Number” $1 note of the Centennial Year, 1967. The faces were very much like the current Bank of Canada $1 which were of the “Modified Portrait – Series of 1954” that would run until 1974 – with the addition of the sylized “Centennial Maple Leaf” motif within the lathework of the background. All the Centennial notes have Beattie-Rasminsky signatures. The back was completely different, the previous “Western prairie and sky” design replaced by a representation of the Parliament Buildings as they existed at Confederation. Since the tower and whole center block had been destroyed by fire in 1916, it was quite different than it is at present. This particular view first appeared on Canadian currency as the front central vignette on the Dominion of Canada $100 note of 1872; perhaps oddly, no circulation notes from this issue appear to have survived, only proofs remaining today. The representation of the old Parliament Buildings was engraved and adapted for the Centennial $1 by Gordon Yorke.
Dominion of Canada $100, 1872 – source of the Centennial $1 back design.
In 1967, the production of the $1 notes was a split contract shared by the Canadian Bank Note Company and the British American Bank Note Company. For all the usual notes, each has the imprint of the respective company, but not the Centennial Notes. In place of the ordinary imprint is the French “Le Centenaire de la Confederation Canadienne” to balance the same English phrase at the top. The notes with the “1867 1967” in place of the serial number had a total issue of 12-million notes with no way to tell which company was the printer. Those with serial numbers can be divided by the serial numbers themselves, since those on the Centennial notes are merely a continuation of the regular series – which again was picked up as soon as 1967 was over. Those printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company for this year all use O as the denominator letter in the serial number, the series letters running from L/O 7000001 to S/O 7900000; their replacement notes were limited to short runs in the L/O and N/O sequence (thought to be *L/O 7000084 – 7039926 and *N/O 0000001 – 0175031), each number preceded by an asterisk. The notes printed by the British American Bank Note Company are designated by a P numerator, the run for the year being F/P 7160001 through M/P 2720000; their replacement notes also have an asterisk preceding the serial number and are thought to consist of *F/P 8001010 to 8060571 and *B/M 1161558 through 1756581. None of the Bank of Canada Centennial issues are tremendously rare, even the scarcer replacement notes possessing a rather modest market value if in less than strictly uncirculated condition. At the beginning of 1968, the two printers reverted to the old pre-1967 designs, continuing on with the serial numbers as they stood at the end of 1967. As a final entry, the Bank of Canada Sale in November 1999 saw a number of Centennial specimen notes enter the market. Each note had been perforated three times with the word “Specimen”. 246 each of $1 1867 1967 and $1 I/P 0000000 were sold. Not all were in strictly top condition, the average being AU.
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June“Canada's Centennial Coins and Currency” . . . . 3 – 12 “The ‘Columbia' Medal of 1787” . . . . . . . . . 12 – 15 “The Aramco Slugs” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 “Army Navy Dept. Store Ltd. Refund Checks” (Salterio) . . 16
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