2013 1oz $20 AUTUMN BLISS - FINE SILVER COIN

Theme:
From sea to sea, Canada in autumn is blanketed with a stunning quilt of brightly coloured foliage. Own this ephemeral moment year-round with this beautifully painted fine-silver coin.
Description:
This fine-silver coin is certified to be 99.99% silver with a diameter of 38 millimetres and a metal weight of 31.39 grams. The reverse image by Canadian artist Tony Bianco features a striking autumn scene on a still Canadian lake. In the foreground, a red canoe sits on a shoreline of tall yellow grasses and white late-summer flowers, beside a golden-leaved aspen stand. The canoe floats on the shallows of a still lake, its bow drawing the eye towards the far (or opposite) shoreline. This distant shore is lined with impressionistic pops of bright red, green and yellow that are reflected in the lake below. On the horizon, indigo mountains rise toward a cloudy autumn sky. In the sky above the lake, an osprey spreads its wings in flight, a work of exceptional artistry and detail in and of itself. Devised to benefit from the coin’s silver surface, the design combines skilful painting and careful engraving to render a painterly scene that captures the sparkling mood of this ephemeral moment. The reverse is engraved with the word “CANADA,” the date “2013” and the face value of “20 DOLLARS.”
The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.

Special Features:

•  An eye-catching coin showcasing the beauty of Canadian autumn, rendered with world-class artistry and skilful melding of design, painting and engraving.

•  A limited mintage of only 7,500 coins means that this lovely piece is sure to be sought after by collectors.

•  A gorgeous gift to celebrate an autumn birthday, a special moment, or for the lovers of art and nature in your life.

•  A distinctive addition to any collection featuring painting, original artwork, the Canadian landscape, Canadian traditions, or Canadiana.

•  Coin is accompanied with a customized beauty box which features the coin design in full colour.

With a graceful pageantry that has long captured the imagination of poets and artists, the brilliant foliage of autumn in Canada has made the nation a fall destination for visitors from around the world. As the final harvest nears an end, flushed from coast to coast with showy russets, warm coppers, intense purples, vibrant golds and glossy greens, Canada’s beauty in autumn is perhaps surpassed only when this riot of colour is doubled in the silver mirror of a still lake.

The season itself results from the annual shifting of the planet’s northern pole away from the sun. This shift attenuates the intensity of the sun’s rays in Canada and other northern countries, resulting in the reduced daylight and colder weather that triggers processes such as the changing of the leaves. The colours we see lining the shore as we quietly paddle a canoe across a crystalline lake result from chemical processes in the leaves, with different chemicals producing distinct colours. Triggered by autumn’s reduced daylight hours, deciduous species like aspen, maple, larch, oak, beech, poplar and birch begin to shut down photosynthesis for the oncoming winter, when the tree will live instead on stored food reserves. As a tree stops producing chlorophyll —the biomolecule that gives leaves their green colour—other tones reveal themselves. In many maple species, this reduction of photosynthesis produces anthocyanin pigments that turn leaves bright red and purple. Brown leaves, such as those on beech and oak trees, result from waste products like tannins. Yellow poplar leaves reveal the presence of xanthophyll and orange maple leaves contain carotene—pigments that are present in the leaf throughout the growing season, but are normally concealed by chlorophyll.

These chemical processes not only help to prepare and preserve the trees for the long, cold winter to come, but create an amazing blaze of colour that draws visitors from around the world. In a season when colder weather and less daylight drives Canadians to warmer indoor pursuits, the glory of autumn pulls us back outside to celebrate a landscape that is diverse and lavishly beautiful in every season.