Canada 10 cents - Elizabeth II 1953

The coin's story

This 10 cents coin in 800 thousandths silver belongs to the series struck from 1953 to 1964, the first in the name of Queen Elizabeth II. The reverse shows the Bluenose, a fishing and racing schooner launched at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in 1921, designed by William J. Roue, she won the International Fishermen's Trophy several times and was beaten only once, in 1930. The design was created by the sculptor Emanuel Hahn for the new coinage of 1937, Hahn himself spoke only of “a schooner”, and the identification of the ship was long debated. The obverse bears the portrait of the young queen wreathed in laurel, by Mary Gillick. The 1953 date exists in two varieties, with or without a fold on the Queen's shoulder, the version without a fold was struck in 17,706,395 pieces at the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa.