2015 Canadian $5 Canadian Bank Notes Series: Canadian Bank Note Vignette - Fine Silver Coin

2015 Canadian $5 Canadian Bank Notes Series: Canadian Bank Note Vignette - Fine Silver Coin

Have you ever looked at a bank note purely as an art form, not just as a vehicle for commercial exchange? One look and you'll see bank notes are masterpieces. Take the stunning vignette on this coin for example. It's from the $5 bank note issued by Barclays Bank (Canada) in 1929. So beautiful in fact, it was used on a number of different denominations over the years.

Bank notes are designed to facilitate commerce while providing security measures against counterfeiting, but at their core, they are works of art. Take away the denomination and counters, legal inscriptions, ornamentation, borders and bars; what emerges is a stunning visual narrative of a nation's evolution, its identity and ideals. Painted or drawn by a renowned artist and then adapted for printing by an equally skilled engraver, every bank note vignette is a masterpiece in its own right, backed by an assembly of functional and aesthetic parts that are remarkable in their complexity.

Celebrate the legacy of monetary design and own a hand-crafted art form whose techniques are slowly fading into history. Order yours today!

Features

4th and final coin in this captivating series celebrating the beauty and art behind Canada's historic banknotes.
An exceptional collectible showcasing the combined effort of two historically significant bank note masters—Alonzo Earl Foringer (allegorical artist) and Edwin Gunn (engraver)—faithfully reproduced by Royal Canadian Mint engravers and struck with multiple finishes to create maximum detail, texture and contrast.
An original keepsake that will delight coin and banknote collectors, history buffs and those with an appreciation for fine art.
Your coin is GST/HST exempt with a limited worldwide mintage.

Design

Your coin features the vignette that appeared on the $5 note from Barclays Bank (Canada) in 1929, and was utilized on a number of denominations over the years. Originally painted by Alonzo Earl Foringer and engraved for the printing press by Edwin Gunn, it features a female allegorical figure gazing at a globe with a winged disc in her hand; symbolic of the bank's expansion into Canada at the time.
In order to prepare Foringer's painting for the bank note, the image had to be reduced in size and adapted for printing. A series of tintypes (soft metal "photographs") were created, and then Edwin Gunn, one of America's most celebrated engravers, translated every detail of the original into a series of dots and lines for the printing press.

Packaging

Your coin is encapsulated and presented in a Royal Canadian Mint-branded maroon clamshell with a custom beauty box.

Specifications

Face Value: $5
Mintage: 8,500
Composition: 99.99% Silver
Weight (g): 23.17
Diameter (mm): 36.07
Finish: Proof