Curator & Collector

1935 Canadian silver dollar obverse and reverse

Artefacts, including–perhaps even especially–coins, tell stories. Today we wish to share with our readers two images of, and a few thoughts on Canada’s first circulation dollar coin, which came in 1935, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the coronation of King George V. This auspicious occasion was deemed sufficient reason to remove the phrase “dei gratia rex” (“by the grace of God, King”) from the obverse, something that did not upset the public as a similar move had back in 1911, when there was a public outcry over the “godless coins.” This coin bears the inscription “GEORGIVS V REX IMPERATOR ANNO REGNI XXV,” a tribute to this twenty-fifth anniversary.

In the presence of real royalty, perhaps we should get away from our somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and highly pretentious, royal plural. Briefly, I would like to share this coin’s story so that readers can appreciate just how special it is. Beginning with the obverse, note the visible symbol of Canada’s ties to the monarchy. I appreciate the symbolism of the king and crown. Readers may be interested to know that the present queen is still officially the “Queen of Canada.”

The reverse, designed by noted sculptor Emmanuel Hahn, is even more intriguing. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a movement took place a among a group of Canadian artists. It was felt that until the country’s landscapes had been painted, “Canada” wouldn’t really be a country fit for people. Seeking to rectify this, seven artists banded together to form the Group of Seven. They filled their canvases with the landscapes of northern Ontario: rock, river, windswept tree, leaves. Initially, their art was described as “barbaric” and strange. Their movement’s influence would be long-lasting. The painting shown below, A.J. Casson’s “White Pine,” gives one a glimpse into what the Group of Seven, who had inspired Casson, was trying to do. The painting itself post-dates our coin by over twenty years, and many of Casson’s works were of southern Ontario. Nevertheless the painting, in its choice and treatment of its subject matter reflects the artistic currents that inspired Hahn.

A.J. Casson’s “White Pine” image from Artefacts Canada

Both Casson’s and Hahn’s works feature windswept trees, water, and solitude. Hahn has people in his canoe, a fur-trading “voyageur” and an Indian. Carved in tiny initials on one of the packs in the canoe are the initials “HB” for Hudson’s Bay Company, an entity that played a pivotal role in the early development of Canada. The straight vertical lines above the island represent the northern lights.

The “Voyageur dollar” remains an icon and a symbol of what the maturing country of Canada was about, and aspired to be. There is the solitude of the island, yet also the spirit of community of the two cultures represented on the canoe. We also see the hardness and and the coldness, as well as the wonder of nature. Perhaps there is also a metaphor for the paradox of life in this barren region: fragile, yet tenacious.

The reverse of Canada’s present dollar coin, ridiculously known as the “loonie,” features an island in the background whose rock, shape, and trees recall the old Voyageur dollar. It’s harder to see all that, now, with the still water and the loon in the foreground, even as, sadly, many Canadians seem to have lost touch with the wilderness that gave the country its character and inspired its artists. Despite the affluence of many in the twenty-first century, it it difficult to see in this loon a convincing metaphor for the life of the nation.