Canada Wins Best Crown for 2021-dated Black and Gold – The Grey Wolf
The Royal Canadian Mint won the Best Crown category in the Coin of the Year (COTY) Awards for coins minted in 2021. The winning coin, $20 Black and Gold – The Grey Wolf, features gold and black rhodium plating, which creates a dramatic contrast.
Canada is home to the second largest gray wolf population in the world, after Russia. Approximately 60,000 wolves can be found across Canada.
According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the duality of the wolf is part of what draws us to it, and the yin and the yang of its existence. “For centuries, the highly intelligent and social species has been feared and unfairly maligned as the villain in children’s stories,” the coin’s description states. “Yet it is that same hunting instinct that makes the elusive wolf an essential part of its ecosystem, where it helps maintain the balance between flora and fauna, predator and prey.”
The $20 coin’s reverse was designed by Claude Thivierge. It features a contrasting “yin and yang”-like representation of the grey wolf (Canis lupus). Two wolves are positioned chin-to-chin to illustrate the tight social bonds that exist between pack members and each wolf has fixed its gaze on the viewer. The gold and black rhodium plating divides the engraved image into two opposite but complementary halves.
The obverse features the gold-plated effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as designed by Susanna Blunt and engraved by Susan Taylor. Queen Elizabeth is aged 77 years, bare headed, wearing a necklace and earrings, and facing right.
The coin has a 99.99% pure silver core. It weighs one ounce and measures 38 mm in diameter. Mintage was limited to 4,500 coins. This is the second coin in a short series that began with Claude Thivierge’s 2019 Black & Gold Canadian Horse.