The loonie, formally the Canadian one-dollar coin, is a gold-coloured Canadian coin that was introduced in 1987 and is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint at its facility in Winnipeg. The most prevalent versions of the coin show a common loon, a bird found throughout Canada, on the reverse and Queen Elizabeth II, the nation's head of state at the time of the coin's issue, on the obverse. Various commemorative and specimen-set editions of the coin with special designs replacing the loon on the reverse have been minted over the years. Beginning in December 2023, a new version featuring King Charles III entered circulation, to replace the version featuring Elizabeth II.
The British decimal one penny (1p) coin is a unit of currency and denomination of sterling coinage worth 1⁄100 of one pound. Its obverse featured the profile of Queen Elizabeth II since the coin's introduction on 15 February 1971, the day British currency was decimalised until her death on 8 September 2022. A new portrait featuring King Charles III was introduced on 30 September 2022, designed by Martin Jennings. Four different portraits of the Queen were used on the obverse; the last design by Jody Clark was introduced in 2015. The second and current reverse, designed by Matthew Dent, features a segment of the Royal Shield and was introduced in 2008. The penny is the lowest value coin ever to circulate in the United Kingdom.
The Group of Seven, once known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933, with "a like vision". It originally consisted of Franklin Carmichael (1890–1945), Lawren Harris (1885–1970), A. Y. Jackson (1882–1974), Frank Johnston (1888–1949), Arthur Lismer (1885–1969), J. E. H. MacDonald (1873–1932), and Frederick Varley (1881–1969). A. J. Casson (1898–1992) was invited to join in 1926, Edwin Holgate (1892–1977) became a member in 1930, and Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald (1890–1956) joined in 1932.
The Royal Canadian Mint is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under the Royal Canadian Mint Act. The shares of the Mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada.
Jean-Paul Riopelle, was a Canadian painter and sculptor from Quebec. He had one of the longest and most important international careers of the sixteen signatories of the Refus Global, the 1948 manifesto that announced the Quebecois artistic community's refusal of clericalism and provincialism. He is best known for his abstract painting style, in particular his "mosaic" works of the 1950s when he famously abandoned the paintbrush, using only a palette knife to apply paint to canvas, giving his works a distinctive sculptural quality. He became the first Canadian painter since James Wilson Morrice to attain widespread international recognition and high praise, both during his career and after his death. He was a leading artist of French Lyrical Abstraction.
In Canada, a dime is a coin worth ten cents. It has been the physically smallest Canadian coin since 1922; it is smaller even than the penny, despite its higher face value. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the official national term of the coin is the 10-cent piece, but in practice, the term dime predominates in English-speaking Canada. It is nearly identical in size to the American dime. Unlike its American counterpart, the Canadian dime is magnetic due to a distinct metal composition. From 1968 to 1999, it was composed entirely of nickel, and since 2000, it has consisted of a steel core with plating composed of layers of nickel and copper.
The quarter, short for quarter dollar, is a Canadian coin worth 25 cents or one-fourth of a Canadian dollar. It is a small, circular coin of silver colour. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the official name for the coin is the 25-cent piece, but in practice it is usually called a "quarter", much like its American counterpart. In Canadian French, it is called a caribou or trente sous. The coin is produced at the Royal Canadian Mint's facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Francis Hans Johnston was a member of the Group of Seven. He most commonly worked as a landscape painter though in a more conservative mode than other members of the Group. He also used tempera rather than oil paint in his Algoma landscapes, a fast-drying material that was more often associated with commercial art of his day.
In Canada, a penny is an out-of-production coin worth one cent, or 1⁄100 of a dollar. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the official term for the coin is the one-cent piece, but in practice the terms penny and cent predominate. Penny was likely readily adopted because the previous coinage in Canada was the British monetary system, where Canada used British pounds, shillings, and pence as coinage alongside U.S. decimal coins and Spanish milled dollars.
Alfred Joseph Casson was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston. Casson is best known for his depictions in his signature limited palette of southern Ontario, and for being the youngest member of the Group of Seven.
One of the most profitable aspects of the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) is its numismatic product line. The first numismatic coin from the RCM was arguably the 1935 dollar commemorating the Silver Jubilee of His Majesty King George V. Though intended for circulation, it was the first Canadian coin commemorating an event. The decision to issue this coin was made in October 1934 by then-Prime Minister R.B. Bennett. There were economic and patriotic motivations for the release of a silver dollar, including a hope to boost the silver mining industry. In future years, the silver dollar would have a more emotional meaning for many Canadians because it was also the first coin to have the Voyageur motif on its reverse.
The Canadian silver dollar was first issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 1935 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. The coin's reverse design was sculpted by Emanuel Hahn and portrays a voyageur and a person of Indigenous descent paddling a birch-bark canoe. The faint lines in the background represent the Northern Lights. The voyageur design was used on the dollar until 1986. It was then replaced with the 1987 Canadian 1-dollar coin. 1967 marked the end of the silver dollar as a business strike, or a coin issued for circulation. After 1967, the dollar coin was made of nickel, except for non-circulating commemorative issues for the collector market, which continue to contain silver.
The Ottawa Mint sovereign is a British one pound coin minted between 1908 and 1919 at the Ottawa Mint (known today as the Ottawa branch of the Royal Canadian Mint. This has augmented debate among Canadian numismatists because some view these pieces as Canadian while others view them as British and thus distinct from the decimal series of Canadian coinage. Since the opening of the Ottawa Mint, the Dominion of Canada's government wanted to produce decimal gold coins. As it was a branch of the Royal Mint, it was obligated to mint sovereigns on request. When sovereigns were requested, it was usually for export causes.
M. Bernard Loates is a Canadian artist, lithographer and publisher in the manner of the private press movement. The private press movement refers to a printing press or publishing method that is artistic based, with great attention to detail as opposed to commercially based. The proprietor controls all elements of the publication, from concept, to design, to the final execution. "Loates is recognized as one of the finest printing artisans..." Loates is best known in the United States for his M.Bernard Loates Edition of John James Audubon, Birds of America. In Canada, Loates is best known for his work with A.J. Casson, the last living member of the Group of Seven.
Leo Yerxa is a Canadian visual artist, medallist, and writer. As an illustrator of children's picture books he won the Governor General's Award in 2006. He lived in Ottawa, Ontario, then. He died on September 1, 2017.
Winston David Ward, also known as W. David Ward, is an English-Canadian artist and writer.
Maria Hupfield is a Canadian artist, working in Brooklyn, New York. She is an Anishinaabe, specifically an Ojibwe and a member of the Wasauksing First Nation, located in Ontario, Canada. Hupfield works in a variety of media, including video and performance. Her performance practice references Anishinaabeg oral history and feminist performance history.
Ann Beam is a multimedia artist based in M'Chigeeng First Nation, Manitoulin Island. Born Ann Elena Weatherby in 1944 in Brooklyn, New York, she is the spouse of artist Carl Beam. She has a BFA from State University of New York at Buffalo. She taught at the Art Gallery of Ontario in the late 1960s and 1970s and later managed the Neon Raven Art Gallery on Manitoulin Island. Themes covered in her art have been described as "cultural histories of women's labour in building homes, in motherhood, cooking and teaching." She has worked with various mediums, including oil and acrylic, found art, recycled materials, pottery, paper and cloth.
Elaine Goble is a Canadian visual artist who lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
Laura Millard is a Canadian contemporary artist. She uses for her installations drawings and videos records of the marks left on the earth obtained from drones, such as traces of the tracks of skates and snowmobiles on ice in northern Canada in a long-term investigation of ways to reinvent the landscape tradition of Canada. She also is an educator with over many years of experience working at OCAD University and a writer; she lives and works in Toronto.
