Curator & Collector

Altered image of Royal Canadian Mint centennial commemorative gold and silver coins from CoinNews.net At over $8,000 and $369.95, respectively, these coins will be out of the price range of many collectors. Nevertheless, the gold $500 coin, with its low mintage of only 250, has already sold out. (The $50 silver coin has a mintage [...]

Altered image of Royal Canadian Mint centennial commemorative silver dollar from CoinNews.net This proof dollar was issued by the Royal Canadian Mint to celebrate and commemorate its 100th anniversary. The leaf recalls both the maple twigs on the penny and the Mint’s trademark bullion reverse design, while the bird calls to mind both the modern [...]

Book Commemorating the Royal Canadian Mint’s centenary anniversary To celebrate and commemorate its centennial anniversary, the Royal Canadian Mint has released a truly stunning book entitled, “Royal Canadian Mint: 100 Years of History.” The book is sure to delight not only numismatists, but also bibliophiles, everywhere. It is not unlike the best of what the [...]

Royal Canadian Mint commemorative fifty-cent coin and stamp Like many collectors, I am not particularly impressed with many of the gimmicky coins (for example, the “milk token”) produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. For their 100th anniversary, though, the Royal Canadian Mint has put together an impressive and very attractive line of products to suit [...]

Eric Friesen, the man behind the signature voice of classical music; image taken from the CBC Radio 2 website [Note: this is a slightly fuller version of a comment I left on the CBC Radio 2 Blog.] I am putting together this post to the accompaniment of Eric Friesen’s last Studio Sparks program from the [...]

Canada Post Stamp commemorating the Royal Canadian Mint’s 100th Anniversary This first post of a series on the products commemorating the Royal Canadian Mint’s 100th anniversary centers on a wonderful stamp produced by Canada Post. (Regular readers should know that this will be my last post on any stamps for the foreseeable future.) The stamp [...]

Canada Post stamp commemorating UBC’s 100th Anniversary On a personal note, this recently-issued Canada Post stamp marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the University of British Columbia, known locally as UBC. I’m pleased to have taught in various roles at this university for parts of 2008. Interestingly, (at least to me) this is [...]

St. George killing the dragon The coin shown above is a particular favourite of Curator & Collector, for it shows a magnificent moment of a myth that dates back most probably to prehistoric times. The motif of “St. George and the Dragon” is but one branch of a myth that was incarnated in Syria as [...]

Saturday night fireworks taken by Yours Truly In a serendipitous occurrence, the fireworks of last night coincide with Curator & Collector’s 100th blog post.

Image of Canada Post stamp celebrating the 150th Anniversary of British Columbia taken from BC 150 Years Today we join Canada Post in wishing the Province of British Columbia a happy 150th Anniversary. Actually, Vancouver Island had, of course, existed as a very British colony since 1849. The mainland, which was administered by the Hudson’s [...]