Stanley Witten | |
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 Witten addressing at the 2011 Highway of Heroes coin unveiling in Trenton, Ontario. | |
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| Nationality | Canadian |
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Stanley Witten is a Canadian artist and engraver. Witten has received national recognition in Canada for his coin designs, including Big Maple Leaf in 2003, and the Terry Fox loonie in 2005. [1] [2] [3]
Stanley Witten has worked for the Royal Canadian Mint since 1990 and became Senior Engraver in 2002. [4]
In 2005, the design of Witten's Terry Fox loonie was unveiled. [5] The coin depicts the Canadian cancer research activist and athlete Terry Fox. [6] After the coin was unveiled, Witten explained to the Ottawa Citizen that "while sculpting the design, I wanted to capture Terry fighting the elements, running against the wind, towering over wind-bent trees on a lonely stretch of Canadian wilderness". [1] As a result of die polishing, some strikings of Witten's design are without grass. [7]
In 2018, Witten designed Canada's first 99.99% gold coin; following the unveiling of the design, Maclean's Magazine wrote that Witten had "slaved over the minute detailing on both sides of the coin". [8] [9] [10]
In 2007, Witten received a Guinness World Record for designing the world's largest gold coin. [11] [12]
In 2009, Witten received the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association's Presidential Award. [13]
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 toonie, formally the Canadian two-dollar coin, was introduced on February 19, 1996, by Minister of Public Works Diane Marleau. As of 2023, it possesses the highest monetary value of any circulating Canadian coin. The toonie is a bi-metallic coin which on the reverse side bears an image of a polar bear by artist Brent Townsend. The obverse, since 2023, bear a portrait of King Charles III. It has the words CHARLES III / D.G. REX; before 2023, the words were in a typeface different to other Canadian coins.
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $. There is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviations Can$, CA$ and C$ are frequently used for distinction from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents (¢).
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.
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.
The Canadian Gold Maple Leaf (GML) is a gold bullion coin that is issued annually by the Government of Canada. It is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint.
The Canadian Silver Maple Leaf is a silver bullion coin that is issued annually by the Government of Canada since 1988. It is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint.
The coins of Canada are produced by the Royal Canadian Mint and denominated in Canadian dollars ($) and the subunit of dollars, cents (¢). An effigy of the reigning monarch always appears on the obverse of all coins. There are standard images which appear on the reverse, but there are also commemorative and numismatic issues with different images on the reverse.
The voyageur dollar is a coin of Canada that was struck for circulation from 1935 through 1986. Until 1968, the coin was composed of 80% silver. A smaller, nickel version for general circulation was struck from 1968 through 1986. In 1987, the coin was replaced by the loonie. Like all of Canada's discontinued coins, the voyageur dollar coins remain legal tender.
The Royal Canadian Numismatic Association was founded in 1950. It is a nonprofit association for coin collectors and other people interested in Canadian numismatics. It has members throughout Canada and in other countries. At times, it also works with the Canadian Association for Numismatic Education (CAFNE), an arms length organization, which is defined by the CRA as a Canadian educational and charitable organization. CAFNE provides funding for some of the RCNA's educational seminars and publications.
Since the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the Royal Canadian Mint has struck Summer and Winter Olympic coins to mark Games held in Canada.
By 1954, a new trend was beginning to emerge for the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association as annual meetings evolved into annual conventions. Working with the Toronto Coin Club as host, the first such convention was held in Toronto in 1954. The conventions offered an agenda of educational forums, bourse activity, competitive exhibits with awards to the winners, and a closing banquet, with the highlight being a special guest speaker.. It was also in 1954 that the association issued its first ever medal to commemorate the event. The tradition of an annual convention and a convention medal continues to this very day.
One of the most highly profitable aspects of the Royal Canadian Mint's enterprise is in its Numismatic product line. The euphoria surrounding the year 2000 led to the birth of the Millennium 25-cent coin program. The numismatic line included proof quality coins sold individually or as a complete set. This level of excess would come to signify the coming decade. The number of numismatic releases would increase on an annual basis starting in 2003. Numismatic three cents, five cents, and ten cents would be introduced, along with numismatic three dollars and eight dollars. Luxury coins would not be immune to the dramatic increases that ensued. Coins with face values of 250, 300 and 350 dollars would be introduced by 2006.
Scenes of Canada is the fourth series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar issued by the Bank of Canada. It was first circulated in 1970 to succeed the 1954 Canadian Landscape series and was followed by the 1986 Birds of Canada banknote series. This was the last series to feature a $1 bill, which was replaced by a $1 coin known as the loonie in 1987, although both the $1 bill and the loonie were produced concurrently for 21 months, from June 1987 to April 1989.
The Royal Canadian Mint has made coins with various themes. Most recently, ice hockey has been used for many numismatic releases. The first known ice hockey coin was for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Issued on February 25, 1986, the coin featured a goalie on the coin. Edge lettering was also used for the coin, the first time that it was used on silver coins.
Yvon Gariepy was the President of the Royal Canadian Mint from 1975 to 1981. In later years, he worked for Canada Post. Mr. Gariepy was a professional member of the Order of Engineers of Quebec, Professional Corporation of Urbanists of Quebec, Canadian Institute of Planners and the Institute of the Public Administration of Canada.
Starting in 1997, the Royal Canadian Mint started to sell hockey medallions to the public. To commemorate the induction of Mario Lemieux in the Hockey Hall of Fame, a set was issued honouring all three inductees. One set was issued in Sterling Silver while another was issued in Nickel. The success of the release led to future issues.
The 150th anniversary of Canada, also known as the 150th anniversary of Confederation and promoted by the Canadian government as Canada 150, occurred in 2017 as Canada marked the sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederation.
The Big Maple Leaf (BML) is a $1 million (CAD) gold coin weighing 100 kilograms (220 lb). A set of five of these coins was produced by the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) in 2007, at their Ottawa facility where the first BML produced remains in storage.
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