Canada 1 dollar - Elizabeth II 1967

The coin's story

This dollar in 800 thousandths silver celebrates the centenary of Canadian Confederation, from 1867 to 1967. For this anniversary, the Royal Canadian Mint replaced the designs of all denominations with animals drawn by the painter Alex Colville: a dove, a rabbit, a mackerel, a lynx, a wolf and, for the dollar, a Canada goose in flight. Colville considered the goose appropriate “because it is one of our most majestic creatures and it is particularly Canadian”. The reverse was engraved by Myron Cook, and the obverse bears the Queen's portrait designed by Arnold Machin. The first coins, struck with a flat field, came out poorly and were largely melted down. The dollar was struck in 6,767,496 pieces at the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa.