Royal Canadian Mint adds to its cutout nature coin series with the Whooping crane

The second of a series of coins looking at Canadian wildlife, something the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) does regularly, this particular range employs a couple of techniques to lift them away from the usual output of this prolific coin producer. While sticking with a cleanly-struck style and thus eschewing any form of colouring, the main feature here is a cut-out silhouette shape of an animal. Not a new thing in itself, the technique was pioneered in some style by none other than industry innovators Coin Invest Trust with their Mongolian nature series of gilded half-ounce issues. It was again employed by the New Zealand Post for a Kiwi coin that was a favourite of ours, though an expensive one for the specification.

The technique here involves the cutting out of a distinct shape, leaving a hole through the coin. The background is then struck with an ‘environment’ for the creature. An effective technique and one enhanced by using a large 54 mm blank, although this requires a weight of 56.3 grams instead of a single troy ounce (31.1 g) with the resultant cost increase. This months coin depicts a Whooping Crane standing in a waterside habitat. The previous coin featured the Woodland Caribou.

The obverse has a small coin-within-a-coin design to hold the required effigy of QEII, along with a repeating etched pattern that looks good and breaks up what would have been a sparse look. Each issue sells for $189.95 CAD and has a mintage capped at 5,500 pieces. Disappointingly given the design, the RCM has chosen to present the coin in a standard maroon snapper case. We think one of the latex ‘floating frames’ would have been better able to show off the coin. Available now.