Canada Wins Best Crown for COTY dated 2014
Canada’s 20-dollar “Maple Canopy—Autumn Allure”(KM#1759) silver coin won the “Best Crown” category for coins dated 2014 in the Krause Coin of the Year Awards presented at the World Money Show in Berlin in 2016. The award-winning coin was the fourth and final issue from the Royal Canadian Mint’s Maple Canopy series of silver coins.
The coin truly captures the beauty of fall foliage, using vibrant hues of orange and yellow to highlight the beauty of the maple’s foliage. As described by the Royal Canadian Mint:
Autumn is one of Canada’s most beautiful seasons that transform the landscape into a magnificent panorama of color. It’s a spectacle of yellow, orange and gold that lures people into the forests to experience nature’s artistry firsthand, and one of the best ways to view the canvas is to stand among the trees, looking up.
Created by Emily Damstra, the coin’s reverse features dynamic and unexpected viewpoint of the maple. It starts at the base of three trees and leads the eye upwards towards the magnificent canopies, which are beautifully enhanced in vivid hues of orange, yellow and gold. A branch in the foreground provides the added perspective to bring the maple leaf’s distinctive shape into view.
The inscription CANADA is included on the trunk of the center tree. The inscription also includes the legal tender face value of 20 DOLLARS and the year 2014. Damstra’s initials appear on the trunk of the left tree.
The obverse features Susanna Blunt’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Inscriptions around the portrait include ELIZABETH II and D G REGINA.
The Autumn Allure has a face value of 20 dollars and a mintage of 7,500. It is comprised of 99.99% pure silver, weighing 31.39 grams and measuring 38 mm in diameter.
Like the other 3 coins in the series, the Autumn Allure sold out quickly and is no longer from the Mint. However, the series was so popular that the the Royal Canadian Mint decided to issue a 30 dollar 2 ounce series with a complementary theme for a new series of coins designed by Emily Damstra beginning in 2018.