Curator & Collector

Bill Reid’s sculpture “The Raven and the First Men, yellow cedar version in the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to visit again Bill Reid’s wonderful sculpture The Raven and the First Men on the official reopening day of the Bill Reid Rotunda in the Museum of Anthropology. This sculpture is, of course, depicted in the lower left of the Canadian $20 reverse. (By the way, I was also fortunate to see there the small gold pieces that were previously stolen, and then recovered for the museum.) This particular sculpture retells in three-dimensional form the Haida creation myth, depicting the moment when the clamshell containing the first humans began to open as curious Raven looked on. The sculpture is a few metres tall, and was worked on by Reid in a team with other Haida artisans. It was unveiled by Prince Charles in 1980.

The first version of this sculpture is also present in the Rotunda: the miniature boxwood version that is only a couple of inches high:

An onyx version also exists in the Bill Reid Art Gallery of Northwest Coast Art.

One of the things impressed on me during a recent tour of the Hornby-Street Gallery was the tremendous differences in scale that Bill Reid worked in, this particular sculpture being perhaps the best example of his creativity in this regard.

I like The Raven and the First Men, and particularly this large sculpture in the Museum of Anthropology, very much. The charming and playful curiosity of the Raven reminds me of the improvising God of the J document behind Genesis 2:4bff. The human bodies in this sculpture are depicted lovingly and wonderfully, with the care and attention of a consummate artist.

(For further links, text, and pictures, see the previous post.)

Screenshot of Arthur Erickson (L) with special guest Bill Reid (R) on a 1954 CBC program “Looking at Art”

I was digging through the website of the CBC Archives the other day when I found this charming clip of two icons of Canadian architecture and art: Arthur Erickson and Bill Reid; the former, of course, passed away only recently. The clip is available in the Bill Reid section of the CBC website archives; just scroll through the media clips and click on the “Looking at Art” media link.

The thought occurred to me that Erickson and Reid had several important points of connection. Two of Bill Reid’s most famous sculptures are housed in buildings designed by Erickson. The Black Canoe version of The Spirit of Haida Gwaii resides in the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC, while the largest version of the Raven and the First Men, along with numerous other Bill Reid artworks, lives in the Erickson-designed Museum of Anthropology in the architect’s hometown of Vancouver, BC. (Click the preceding link for several photographs of the building, including a couple of pictures of Bill Reid’s artwork. Meanwhile, the Georgia Straight reports that the Museum of Anthropology is going to add one more Erickson element to its structures: a permanent reflecting pool.) Finally, both artist and architect suffered from Parkinson’s Disease in their latter years.

Below you will find a very limited webliography for each of these Canadian creators.

Arthur Erickson
In Canadian Who’s Who
As architect of the Ross Street Sikh Temple (Vancouver, BC)
Official website (with many good photographs of Erickson’s buildings)
In the website of the CBC Archives

Bill Reid
Jade Canoe at Vancouver International Airport
The Raven and the First Men
Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art (with several good photographs)
Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art (official site)
Bill Reid Foundation
In the website of the CBC Archives

Arthur Erickson in an undated photograph from the CBC

Canadian architect Arthur Erickson has passed away. Erickson designed notable buildings around the world, but is most special to me for the ones that I have experienced: the UBC Museum of Anthropology and the buildings at Simon Fraser University. (It should be noted that the MOA remains in an expansion phase of its existence, but the main hall designed by Erickson was completed a long time ago. Numismatics buffs may remember that the MOA houses the most famous and the largest version of Bill Reid’s Raven and the First Men sculpture, as well as some of Reid’s jewelry collection. The Raven and the First Men is depicted on the reverse of the Canadian $20 bill.) The design for the Museum was done very sensibly, and sensitively and aesthetically, reflecting the structures of the First Nations whose cultural artefacts are preserved so well in the museum.

Arthur Erickson died in peace, his nephew reports:

Erickson’s nephew, Geoff, said he died Wednesday afternoon in Vancouver.

“He died in peace of old age, surrounded by loving family and fantastic friends from all over the world who’ve been coming and going, sending cards and letters,” he said. “[They've] been phoning from all over the world. It’s quite extraordinary” (CBC News).

Canada has been blessed with Erickson’s presence, and I’m pleased that his passing was peaceful, dignified, and preceded by the recognition he deserved.

The previous post noted the story of the two “experts” quoted on the subject of the possible privatization of the Royal Canadian Mint. This post will look at how this was reported by The Canadian Numismatic Journal. There were two groups of errors. The first example makes a tense form error as well as a punctuation error. Worse, italics, rather than quotation marks, are used in the original to indicate a quotation.

“Don Drummond, chief economist of TD Bank Financial Group, said The Royal Canadian Mint, absolutely, could be privatized. In fact, much of what the Mint does right now is printing money for other countries. One would think a high rated banker would chose [sic] better language to express himself, [sic] then again, maybe he actually believes the RCM prints foreign paper notes” (The Canadian Numismatic Journal, vol. 54, No 4, p. 235).

The second error, which is from the succeeding paragraph, is more serious:

“‘The other quotation was from ‘Ken Wong, a business professor at Queen’s University, [who] [brackets correctly used in original--NB] said privatizing an enterprise like the Mint could actually allow it to expand the memorabilia side of the business’. If you’re going to be in memorabilia why just dip your toe in when you can immerse your hole body said Wong. One can only assume Mr. Wong has never visited the RCM Web [sic] site [sic].”

The problem with the second example is more problematic because it’s not obvious if the italicized line is a paraphrase or a quotation, particularly since the quotation mark closes early; one has to google the original article to determine which. The capitalized “W” and the incorrect spelling of “website” as two words don’t help matters.

Again, and with reference to the first post in this series, it’s not the fact that a writer is making the odd error that bothers me; I, too, make typographical errors, as does almost everyone. What bothers me the most is that editors of Canada’s two leading numismatic publications (in one case elected or appointed, in the other paid) are not catching these errors: in our current example, the density of the errors, the ease with which most of them could be caught, and the fact that quotations are not clearly marked remain cause for concern. As a paying customer, I remain grateful to the editors of both publications for their work, but I also want to challenge them to do better.

It gives me great sadness to note the attempts at privatization of two of the world’s best and most famous mints: the Royal Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint. The Royal Mint will likely be privatized, reports the BBC; meanwhile, according to the Winnipeg Free Press, the Department of Finance is looking at privatizing the Royal Canadian Mint as part of a government review of Crown corporations. Both Mints have substantial operations as contracted minters of coins and suppliers of coin blanks for other countries.

Meanwhile, the “experts” quoted by the Winnipeg Free Press, appear–as a recent article in the current print edition of the The Canadian Numismatic Journal points out*–either to lack a good understanding of what the Mint actually does, or to lack an accurate way of expressing themselves on topics within their field:

“‘The Royal Canadian Mint, absolutely, could be privatized,’ said [Don] Drummond[, chief economist of TD Bank Financial Group]. ‘In fact, much of what the Mint does right now is printing money for other countries, which has nothing really to do with Canada’” (Winnipeg Free Press).

The Royal Canadian Mint “mints” (or “manufactures”) coins; the Bank of Canada “prints” banknotes.

The second “expert” quoted by the article, Ken Wong, a professor of Business at Queen’s University, said that privatization could help the Mint expand its “memorabilia” section:

“‘As a government agency they are just charged with making currency,’ said Wong. ‘If you’re going to be in memorabilia why just dip your toe in when you can immerse your whole body’” (Winnipeg Free Press).

So even if most of the Mint’s operations are connected with its official duties, its watches and line of collector’s coins (”memorabilia”!) should occasion its privatization! And that’s despite the fact that the Mint actually makes money for the government, and by that I don’t mean only “manufacturing” here.

I can only hope the governments of the U.K. and Canada can somehow resist the urge to so callously sell off the heritage of their nations.

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*See the next post for more on this reference.

Finally, Canadian Coin News has hired a new Editor for its Trends section. The writing in the Trends paragraphs has been abominably bad for far too long, as the previous editor simply could not write even at a high school level; literally every sentence had serious grammar or punctuation problems. This reflected very badly on the publication (which is supported by a government grant), and on its senior editor. The thing that really gets me is that it took so long to get something done, given the fact that (a) it was there for all to see, and (b) the glaringly bad writing invited the distrust of the reader.

As a disclaimer, I should mention that everyone makes grammatical mistakes from time to time (including me), and especially people working on deadlines. Also, I remain grateful that the Trends section has been published at all, and I know that more than a little work has gone into it by both editors. But if one is paid to publish, and certainly if one is paid to edit, there are no excuses for the ubiquity of such serious writing problems over so many issues.

So thanks to the old, and here’s to the new editor, with hopes for better writing and more accurate and copious information!

Table from the National Palace Museum in Seoul

While on my Korea trip, I visited the National Palace Museum of South Korea. This museum, newly located next to Gyeongbokgung (the palace in front of the Presidential mansion) now has a subway exit to the #3 line located right next to the building, making access easier than it used to be. In fact, the museum was formerly housed on the grounds at the small palace of Deoksugung a short distance away; I worked more or less across the street from it at that time. Gyeongbokgung, of course, also houses the National Folk Museum of Korea, but I had no time to visit that museum on this trip.

In general, this museum is a good one: well-laid out, with some English. The museum primarily focuses on the Choseon dynasty’s imperial housing, science, and clothes. Unfortunately, most of the textiles in this museum are replicas. (The Textiles Museum housed at Sookmyung Women’s University has many authentic textiles.) There is furniture, a photograph exhibit of the royal family, and a model of a reconstruction (!) of a princely placenta-holder. Perhaps the most interesting exhibit–for me–was the pair of turn-of-the-century cars in the basement of the museum. The restored cars had wooden bodies covered in red lacquer.

This historical tidbit was particularly amusing to me because a certain someone I know had his car repaired with wood by his mechanic brother, but we won’t say anything more about that!

One small curatorial touch that I particularly appreciated was the way one of the imperial books was displayed, using an unobtrusive transparent weight to hold the book open:

Finally, since the museum is located on palace grounds–itself a huge outdoor museum–there is much to be seen and learned in the immediate vicinity. The next few photos show some of the views of Gyeongbokgung.

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As a footnote, it is worth mentioning that the gate largely destroyed by an arsonist is being rebuilt, mostly with new materials. I took no photographs of the reconstruction of that gate. Unfortunately, the main gate at Gyeongbokgung is also being “restored” at the present, which means that Seoul has been deprived of two of its most famous gates for the time being.

The Bank of Korea Museum in Seoul, South Korea

A few days ago I returned from a trip to South Korea, where I had the opportunity to visit the Bank of Korea Museum. The museum, an excellent one, is housed in a grand old building constructed from 1907 to 1912.

The interior is lovely, and the exhibits fascinating. The audio commentary in English is clear and crisp, and informative. As an example of one of the more interesting facts one can learn in the museum, I note that since Korean banknotes are made of 100% cotton, recycled banknotes have industrial uses from car insulation liners to floors. The museum has an international money section, a historical Korean money section, a counterfeit detection/children’s section, a section on finance at the national and international levels, and a small library. There are various older machines on display, including reducing machines, counterfeit detection machines, banknote packaging machines, and banknote counting machines. There is no entrance fee, which means there simply is no excuse not to go for the numismatist or museum buff who finds him- or herself in Seoul.

A few select photograph thumbnails are below.

Bill Reid’s “Jade Canoe” version of his Spirit of Haida Gwaii at Vancouver International Airport

A few of Bill Reid’s largest and best-known sculptures are not in museums or galleries. One of these stands in a large fountain at the entrance to the Vancouver Aquarium. The most famous one, though, exists in two primary versions, one in the Canadian embassy in Washington DC, the other in Vancouver International Airport: the Spirit of Haida Gwaii. (For those unaware, “Haida Gwaii” is the indigenous name for the Queen Charlotte Islands, located to the north of Vancouver Island on Canada’s West Coast. The Vancouver sculpture is known as the “Jade Canoe” version.)

The Spirit of Haida Gwaii was originally commissioned for the Canadian embassy in Washington, DC:

“Subtitled The Black Canoe, it is Bill Reid’s largest and most complex work of sculpture. The Spirit of Haida Gwaii is a monumental sculpture in bronze: 6.05 m long, 3.9 m high, 3.5 m wide and weighing 4,900 kg” (the Bill Reid Foundation).

The sculpture in the embassy is covered in black patina, and is usually known as “The Black Canoe.” According to the Bank of Canada, it “is owned by the people of Canada, with Foreign Affairs Canada serving as its custodian.” The jade version, reflecting BC’s environment, was commissioned by YVR, Vancouver’s Airport Authority, and stands majestically in the exit of the departures section of the International terminal. Recently, I had occasion to pass through the airport, when I took the photographs shown here.

This sculpture is, of course, the primary object depicted on the back of the Canadian $20 bill:

I like it as a metaphor for the makeup of the nation (it also works as a metaphor for Haida society, as well as human society at the largest level): there may be some of us at odds with others, but we are all in the same boat.

What is impossible to tell from the bill, though, is the size and colour of the sculpture, to say nothing of the details on the other sides, or on the staff of the shaman in the midst of the boat–hence, these pictures.

Details on the meaning of the canoe can be found at the Bill Reid Foundation.

Entrance to the interior of the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art

The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, located at the beautiful and historic Cathedral Place on Hornby Street in downtown Vancouver, is a real jewel of curated space that is both museum and art gallery. The gallery is operated by the Bill Reid Foundation, which aims “to preserve the art and perpetuate the legacies of Bill Reid.” The gallery and exhibits reflect this double emphasis.

I was fortunate to have had two fascinating guided tours by the Administrative Director of the gallery. The informal talks that Peter Malkin gave while guiding us through the museum helped me to appreciate the tremendous creativity of Bill Reid, the great differences of scale that he worked in, and the way he brought back from the past the creation of Haida art, showing the way to a future generation of artists and artisans. I was also able to get a sense of his “joy”–the making of beautiful things.

For those unfamiliar with Bill Reid, he began his artistic career as a jeweler before discovering for himself his aboriginal heritage on his mother’s side.

The gallery itself is beautifully laid out. Hanging from the high ceiling of this first hall are the exquisite oars of a canoe that Bill Reid carved, and this particular exhibit thus functions as an excellent example of curatorial creativity. The painted glass that one sees when one enters the first hall of exhibits recalls the bentwood box tradition of Haida art; the Bill Reid Gallery is, then, inside the box of Haida creativity. A few examples of bentwood boxes are located at this part of the gallery.

Bill Reid began his artistic carving during his school days, when he carved a charming miniature tea set for his sister out of chalk:

From this small beginning, he went on to create sketches, paintings, sculptures, jewelry, and stove-wire figurines that reveal the gentle humour of a man whose shaking hands suffered from Parkinson’s Disease.

The Gallery possesses, in some fashion, all of Bill Reid’s most famous works. The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, while not physically present, is rendered digitally on a large screen that can be manipulated by the viewer to show different sides and angles of his best-known artwork. This sculpture is, of course, the primary subject of the reverse of Canada’s $20 bill, and will be the subject of the next post.

Reverse of the Canadian $20 banknote from the “Canadian Journey” series showing Bill Reid’s designs

The sculpture depicted near the bottom left corner of the bill, The Raven and the First Men, best known in the gigantic yellow cedar carving at the UBC Museum of Anthropology, is present in a smaller, little-known onyx version:

The Haida Grizzly Bear design (in pale yellow on the $20 bill) is visible in one of the serigraph prints that were made to raise money for the Artsts for Kids Trust:

The best exhibit, though, is Mythic Messengers, a huge bronze frieze depicting the orality of Haida culture and civilization. A part of the frieze is represented in pale colours on the $20 bill (top right); it is the Haida story of the abduction of Nanasimget’s wife by a killer whale.

Bill Reid’s bronze frieze “Mythic Messengers” displayed in the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art*

My only complaint about the gallery would be the lack of Bill Reid materials (books, DVD’s, etc.) available for purchase. Certainly, though, the gallery is well worth one’s time, and while small, repays multiple visits.

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*This photograph is my first “stitch.” It was made using Windows Live Photo Gallery’s panoramic stitch function from three photographs as I could not fit the whole thing into one photograph. I mention this because I’ve always been something of an image-software-phobe. Windows Live Gallery makes this particular task of stitching easy; I’m also happy to use this program to resize images, since this was a feature lacking in the regular Windows Photo Gallery.

BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum photograph image from the BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum

The BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, which I recently had occasion to visit at its home in BC Place Stadium in downtown Vancouver, is a well-curated collection of exhibits that managed to please this museum buff for whom sports are passé. For the record, the museum has interactive exhibitions suitable for children and sports history buffs.

I enjoyed the beautiful replica poster of the 1924 Olympic Games (depicted in the movie Chariots of Fire), and the photo of the Canadian men’s ice hockey team at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games (where Canada took Gold in both Men’s and Women’s hockey). BC-ers on the men’s team included legends such as Paul Kariya, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, and Pat Quinn.

What made the museum really worthwhile for me, though, were the Terry Fox Gallery and the Rick Hansen Gallery. Both of these men were and are Canadian heroes.

The Terry Fox Gallery is devoted to celebrating the accomplishments of Terry Fox, who died after running half-way across Canada on an artificial leg mounted onto an amputated stump; a part of the artificial leg is shown below:

Fox ran across Canada in 1980 in an early Herculean effort to raise money for cancer research; his run was tragically cut short by his passing. I have a special interest in Terry Fox, widely recognized as one of Canada’s greatest heroes, as I attended the high school he went to; some of my teachers had met him. By all accounts, Terry Fox was a highly disciplined, very caring, and determined young man. Interestingly, a plaque at the Terry Fox Gallery indicates that it is presented by the Rich Hansen Man in Motion World Tour Society.

Rich Hansen, a paraplegic British Columbian who wheeled around the world in his wheelchair to raise money for, and awareness of spinal cord research, was an acquaintance and friend of Terry Fox who was also inspired by him. Unlike Fox, Hansen lived to finish his physical journey, and remains active in sport, health, and environmental causes today. The gallery showcases the route he took as he wheeled around the world, as well as his wheelchair, a prototype of what would become the sports-wheelchair used by disabled athletes today:

My only concern with the museum was the omission of the “Terry Fox loonie” in the Terry Fox Gallery. This coin, released in 2005, is the only Canadian circulation coin minted so far (!) to depict a Canadian on it. Sometime after the end of April, I will be offering to the museum a coin from my own collection to remedy this omission.

The next series of posts will reflect Curator and Collector’s local interests in the Vancouver, BC, Canada area. Further updates beyond those are, as always, planned, but are possible only as time permits.

Image of recently recovered Bill Reid brooch taken from the CBC

I haven’t had much time for blogging lately, but I did want to conclude the saga of the stolen Bill Reid artworks. The CBC is reporting that the last two artworks stolen from the UBC Museum of Anthropology were recovered. Also, a career criminal was paid a reward of $20,000. For my part, I do not begrudge this, but I do hope that if he were directly involved that he would be charged and forfeit most of the money.

[More posts will follow, but I should be more careful about making promises for posting than I have been in the past.]

Image of loonie with “notankers” sticker applied taken from the Dogwood Initiative

The Georgia Straight, the CBC, and other local BC newspapers are reporting on a recent numismatic imbroglio involving an environmental group called the Dogwood Initiative and the Royal Canadian Mint. Essentially, the Dogwood Initiative is selling stickers that can be applied to loonies, making the loon and water black like oil. The purpose is to raise awareness of the dangers of oil spills on Canada’s West Coast. The stickers are fully removable.

According to the Georgia Straight article:

The Royal Canadian Mint, however, maintains in its letter that Section 11 of the Currency Act bans the use of coins for any reason other than as currency.

“Contravention of this section of the Currency Act can lead to liability on summary conviction to a fine and or imprisonment,” the mint’s legal counsel, Kathryn Reynolds, wrote.

The Dogwood Initiative is not giving in. Without commenting just yet on the merits of the Dogwood Initiative’s stated goals, I wonder, as a collector, if collecting counts in Canadian Law as a “use” other than “as currency.” If so, that would mean numismatists have a “dog” in this fight, if I may put it that way.

Personally, I find this idea rather appealing, and if I were ever to receive such a coin in change, I would most certainly keep it as a collector’s item. It will be interesting to see if the Mint, which on the surface appears to be acting with a somewhat heavy hand, is able to win this case. In the meantime, my sympathy tends to be with the Dogwood Initiative: the planet has got to get off its addiction to oil, for the love of crude is the root of all evil, damaging the environment and supporting brutal dictatorships.

Images of Canadian 1870 50 cent pieces, with and without the engraver and designer’s initials, taken from Heritage World Coin Auction Catalog #312, Sid and Alicia Belzberg Collection, via Google Books. The two particular coins shown above are not the subject of this post, although their types are.

Terry Campbell, in the current edition of Canadian Coin News makes a rather interesting claim (vol. 46, No. 20, Jan. 20 to Feb. 2nd 2009) in his Q & A column. On the third page of the column, he quotes a question from a reader about a PCGS-certified 1870 “no LCW” fifty cent piece.

The question was about how to ship the coin, which Campbell had indicated had been altered to resemble a rare variety, to PCGS for further inspection. Before answering that question, Campbell gives a bit of background on his first-hand knowledge of this coin, gathered shortly after it was purchased:

I [had] looked at this coin of [name redacted by blog author]. For some unknown reason I studied this coin quite intently. I discovered that the W of the L.C.W. (Leonard Charles Wyon, Royal Mint Chief Engraver) was still visible on Queen Victoria’s truncation. After looking there, I naturally lifted my glass to examine the area behind the front jewel of Queen Victoria’s crown. Here I discovered heavy scratches indicative of tool marks. This is how to make a $550 coin into a $7,700 coin.

While many collectors and dealers are both passionate and honest in their collecting, it remains true that there is still a fair amount of skulduggery in the numismatics and rare collectibles field. The primary function of a grading, or coin certification service, is to authenticate the coins sent them, and, secondarily, of course, to assign a grade. This primary function is especially important when it comes to ostensibly rare material.

PCGS is widely regarded as the premier coin certification service in the United States, and if they can be fooled so easily,* this bodes ill for the hobby in general, as well as for this particular coin collector who purchased the coin.

This situation also underscores–for me, at least–the importance of having Canadian coins graded by Canadian certification companies; certainly, one wonders if PCGS’s expertise in grading American material extends at the same level to Canadian material also. It would seem doubtful, in any case, that their expertise could match that of the Canadian companies which grade more or less exclusively Canadian material.

In fact, Campbell–without making any comments about PCGS–had previously recommended that the coin’s owner send it to ICCS for inspection. The Canadian-owned and operated International Coin Certification Service is, in the Canadian context, regarded as the most authoritative grading company for Canadian coins. Unfortunately, their “slabs” are soft plastic; fortunately, their smaller rival, Canadian Coin Certification Service (CCCS) has just produced a hard slab. Perhaps the presence of a Canadian hard slab will slowly change the market’s practices in terms of which companies grade Canadian coins.
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*Of course, Campbell’s discovery has yet to be verified by a grading company on either side of the 49th parallel, so it may turn out that PCGS was correct after all.

A possibly authentic “Dali” found in Estepona, Spain. Image from the Associated Press

An Associated Press story released from Estepona, Spain, has it that dozens of fake Dali artworks have been seized by police. The culprit, a Frenchman, has been found and charged with fraud and forgery. This discovery comes ten years after police in Spain confiscated approximately 10,000 faked Dali artworks. What makes this discovery particularly noteworthy is that up to twelve of the artworks, which include paintings, lithographs, and sculptures may be genuine; also, inauthentic certificates of authenticity were found.

After a gruelling semester, it seems that I will now have rather too much time on my hands. Look for more updates this week, with continued updates in January.

Actually, it’s the lack of them that’s the subject of this post.  There will likely be none for about two weeks.

On the night of the US elections, I can’t resist a brief foray into politics. Tonight I found a “Pajamas Media” article about how McCain lost the election. Mostly, it dealt with various tactical mistakes.

As President-elect Obama’s night winds down, I feel like adding a few points of my own.

1.) The biggest reason McCain lost is because of the current President, George Bush. He either betrayed traditional Republican principles, or was too often ineffective in implementing his own.

2.) The second most important reason McCain lost is because he was who he is: an aging Senator with a bombastic mouth but an almost naive and self-handicapping sense of idealism. McCain-Feingold is a perfect example of this, as was his pledge to take public campaign financing. Meanwhile, McCain’s record as a Senator lent some plausibility to the Obama line that he “voted 90% with Bush.” The only public institution with a lower popularity rate than the President’s was Congress; the GOP’s selection of a Senator in that context was fatal, and the party would have been better served by running an experienced Governor in an election dominated by the public’s desire for change.

3. After these most important, and basic factors are considered, it seems to me that McCain’s choice of Palin, while it excited the base for a while, ultimately hindered a victory. I kept an open mind about Palin and found much of the media’s treatment of her despicable. Nevertheless, the presence on the ticket of a Creationist Pentacostal who claimed to know the will of God as it applied to things like pipeline construction, or who couldn’t bring herself to recognize the findings of science on global warming, just served to give the impression of a team that was out of its depth.

4.) During an economic crisis, the public wanted a man who could handle the economy, and since McCain had gone on the record as saying he really didn’t understand the economy, he essentially sealed his own fate.

Image of 1911 $500 Canadian Queen Mary Banknote taken from Canada.com story

An extremely rare Canadian banknote that was “destined for the shredder” was recently sold in a Heritage Auction Galleries-brokered sale, fetching a price of $322,000 US, a record for Canadian banknotes. The Dominion of Canada banknote, which is one of only three known to exist, features Queen Mary, the wife of King George V; the bill was purchased by a Canadian resident of Dallas, Texas. Collectors of paper money will note that this bill is not in the Bank of Canada’s currency collection.

Interestingly, the bill did undergo “minor restoration” prior to its sale. If the image that accompanied the Canada.com article referenced above is indeed of the precise bill in question, then it was graded by PMG.