2013 $25 FINE SILVER 5-COIN SET - O CANADA SERIES - BEAVER - POLAR BEAR - WOLF - CARIBOU - ORCA

2013 O'CANADA 1oz. $25 5-COIN SET

 THIS COMPLETE SET INCLUDES:

• BEAVER
• POLAR BEAR
• WOLF
• CARIBOU
• ORCA

2013 $25 FINE SILVER COIN O CANADA SERIES -THE BEAVER

The iconic image of the beaver reaches back to Canada's earliest roots. This resilient animal, unmatched except by humans for its ability to manipulate the land to its own ends, symbolizes the wealth of resources and innovation that have allowed Canada to evolve from a fur-trading outpost to a sovereign nation. The beaver's persistence, penchant for hard work and adaptability are qualities that Canadians hold dear.
Your coin is the first coin in our new 1 oz fine silver O Canada series, which focuses on iconic Canadian animals to celebrate Canada. Order your coin today!

Special Features: • NEW! First coin in our new 1 oz fine silver O Canada series. • Your coin is rendered in fine silver (99.99% pure) and is GST/HST exempt. • Future coins in this series include images of the Polar Bear, Caribou, Wolf and Orca, and are available as part of a subscription. • Struck in premium proof finish with a mirrored background, this beautiful silver coin features an entire family of beavers in their natural habitat. • Engraved in exquisite detail to celebrate one of Canada's most important national icons. • Limited mintage of 8,500 worldwide.

Design: Designed by Canadian artist Pierre Leduc, your coin features a portrait of a beaver mother and two kits. The mother is viewed from behind with the right side of her body set in profile, gazing at her two small kits who nestle in the curve of their mother's tail and body. The adult's iconic leathery tail is fully visible, its scale-like surface rendered in textural detail. In the background, you see the beavers' home pond with a twig structure. In the far distance, the shoreline is dotted with leafy deciduous trees, which are preferred by the beaver. Framing the reverse image is an outer band featuring the word "CANADA," the date "2013," and the face value of "25 DOLLARS," as well as a small stylized beaver paw print symbol.

Packaging: Your coin is encapsulated and presented in a maroon clamshell case lined with flock and protected by a customized beauty box.
An excellent addition to any collection focused around nature.

Product Specifications:

Mintage: 8500

Composition: fine silver (99.99% pure)

Finish: proof Weight (g) 31.39 Diameter (mm) 38

Edge: serrated

Certificate: serialized

Face value: 25 dollars

Artist: Pierre Leduc (reverse), Susanna Blunt (obverse)

2013 $25 FINE SILVER COIN O CANADA SERIES - THE POLAR BEAR

The second 1 oz silver coin in the Royal Canadian Mint’s new O Canada series focusing on iconic Canadian images, this beautiful coin celebrates the rich history and symbolism associated with the polar bear.

Description: This 25-Dollar coin is certified to be 99.99% fine silver with a diameter of 38 millimetres and a metal weight 31.39 grams. The reverse design by Canadian artist Pierre Leduc presents an outer polished border framing an inner field engraved with the image of a mother polar bear playing with her two young cubs on a frozen Arctic hillside. The massive mother sits patiently on her hindquarters in a snowdrift as one cavorting cub, standing on its hind legs, paws at her left arm. She turns to her cub, the two almost nose-to-nose, as though in good humour. In front of her, the other cub, viewed from its left side, stands on all fours surveying its frozen home, perhaps readying itself for a game of ice sliding. Above the bears and to the right side of the image rises a large snowdrift topped by two snow-covered trees. The reverse also features a stylized polar bear paw print and the engraved word “CANADA,” the date “2013,” and the face value of “25 DOLLARS.” The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.

Special Features:

• This is the second coin in the Royal Canadian Mint’s exciting new O Canada 1 oz silver coin series. The series focuses on iconic Canadian animals to celebrate all that makes Canada unique. Rendered in 99.99% pure silver with limited mintages, this coin is sure to be sought after by collectors.
• Future coins in this series include images on the Polar Bear, Caribou, Wolf and Orca, and is available as part of a subscription.
• Struck in premium proof finish with a mirrored background, this beautiful silver coin features an entire family of polar bears in their natural habitat.
• Engraved in exquisite detail to celebrate one of Canada’s most important national icons.
• An excellent addition to any premium collection focused around nature or Canadiana.

Product Specifications:

Face Value: 25 dollars

Mintage: 8,500

Composition: 99.99% pure silver

Weight (g): 31.39 Diameter (mm): 38

Edge: Serrated

Finish: Proof Certificate: Serialized

Artist: Pierre Leduc

Advertising Date: April 2, 2013

Launch Date: April 9, 2013

Packaging: Each coin is encapsulated and presented in a maroon clamshell case lined with flock and protected by a customized full color sleeve.

Finished size: 67 mm x 67 mm

Complete certificate text: O Canada Canada’s national identity is much like its majestic landscape: diverse, storied, and sometimes elusive. In the ever-changing tectonics of Canadian culture, identifiers tend to reflect the nation’s multicultural nature and its geography, fauna and flora, and social and political institutions. Born of this complex background, Canadian icons are distinct because they carry meaning for all Canadians, regardless of where we live or how we came to be here. These are the images that plumb the depths of Canadian pride and kindle Canadians’ love for their home. Polar Bear: King of the Arctic In the vast Canadian Arctic, Ursus maritimus is king. Like its homeland, it is massive— males can weigh up to 800 kilograms and females are about 400 kilograms. Although Polar Bears inhabit Arctic coasts around the world, Canada hosts the largest population on earth: about 15,000 of the global total of approximately 25,000.
Distinct for its creamy white colouring, the Polar Bear is well adapted for its home Perhaps the Polar Bear’s most important adaptation is its ability to slow its metabolism to survive lean times: its body will automatically go into energy conservation mode if the bear has not eaten for about a week. Ironically, this massive apex predator is born tiny and helpless. Weighing less than a kilogram with very fine hair, Polar Bear cubs—usually born in sets of two—enter the world in the relative warmth and safety of the maternal den. Mother and cubs will wait there for several months until the cubs are strong enough to survive the cold. Beginning around March, the cubs accompany their mother on hunts for their food staple, the ringed seal. Their exceptional sense of smell is powerful enough to detect a seal’s breathing hole in the ice from a kilometer away. The cubs will stay with their mother until they are about two and a half years old, creating a three-year breeding cycle that helps to explain the slow growth of Polar Bear populations. A Canadian Icon A symbol of the power and vastness of Canada’s northern landscape, the Polar Bear is an iconic animal for Canadians. In a nation dominated by weather extremes, the Polar Bear’s ability to survive and thrive in the harshest climate reflects Canadians’ stalwart pragmatism and spirit of adventure.

2013 $25 FINE SILVER COIN O CANADA SERIES -THE WOLF

The third coin in the Royal Canadian Mint’s exciting new O Canada series focusing on iconic Canadian images, this beautiful coin celebrates the powerful wolf—one of Canada’s most fascinating native species.

Description: The reverse design by Canadian artists Pierre Leduc presents a wolf mother with two of her pups in a Canadian forest. The tiny pups stand in front of their mother in the centre of the image, the one in the foreground looking directly at the viewer while its sibling, standing slightly behind it, gazes up at its mother for comfort. The mother stands behind the two pups, her body arched in a protective stance, tail down, head low and gazing up toward the viewer through haunting eyes. The family stands atop a rocky outcropping in a forest. Grassy mosses dot the ground here and there. In the background we see the trunk and sparse branches of a balsam fir, leading down a slope toward more evergreens. The reverse image is framed with a border engraved with the word “CANADA,” the date “2013,” the face value of “25 DOLLARS,” and a stylized wolf paw-print. The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.

Special Features:

• This is the third coin in the Royal Canadian Mint’s exciting new O Canada 1 oz silver coin series. The series focuses on iconic Canadian animals to celebrate all that makes Canada unique. Rendered in 99.99% pure silver with limited mintages, this coin is sure to be sought after by collectors.
• Future coins in this series include images on the Caribou and Orca.
• The subscription series sold out quickly.
• Struck in premium proof finish with a mirrored background, this beautiful silver coin features an entire family of beavers in their natural habitat.
• Engraved in exquisite detail to celebrate one of Canada’s most important national icons.
• An excellent addition to any premium collection focused around nature or Canadiana.

Product Specifications:

Face Value: 25 dollars

Mintage: 8,500

Composition: 99.99% pure silver

Weight (g): 31.39 Diameter (mm): 38

Edge: Serrated

Finish: Proof

Certificate: Serialized

Artist: Pierre Leduc

Advertising Date: June 4, 2013

Launch Date: June 11, 2013

Packaging: Each coin is encapsulated and presented in a maroon clamshell case lined with flock and protected by a customized full color sleeve. Finished size: 67 mm x 67 mm

Complete certificate text: O Canada Canada’s national identity is much like its majestic landscape: diverse, storied, and sometimes elusive. In the ever-changing tectonics of Canadian culture, identifiers tend to reflect the nation’s multicultural nature and its geography, fauna and flora, and social and political institutions. Born of this complex background, Canadian icons are distinct because they carry meaning for all Canadians, regardless of where we live or how we came to be here. These are the images that plumb the depths of Canadian pride and kindle Canadians’ love for their home.

Ancient Spirit of Survival: The Wolf

The howl of a wolf pack sends shivers down even the most stalwart spine. Perhaps it is the wolf’s howl that spawned for Canis lupus an association with malevolence despite the utter absence of historical evidence that it is harmful to people. In the entire written history of Canada, there is not a single record of a wolf having killed a human being. Nevertheless, this ancient brother of the domesticated dogs we welcome into our homes has long suffered for the unfounded terror it instills in people.

Four subspecies of Canis lupus are found across northern and western Canada and in the region around the Great Lakes. Canis lupus lycaon, the Eastern Timber Wolf, resides in the south-eastern region of the Great Lakes. Canis lupus arctos, the Arctic Wolf, lives in the far north. Canis lupus nubilus, known as the Great Plains Wolf or Buffalo Wolf, lives in the south-central region just west of the Great Lakes. Canis lupus occidentalis, the Rocky Mountain or McKenzie Valley Wolf, has its home in the west as far north as Alaska.

The largest member of the Canidae family is a notably adaptable animal whose appearance, preferred prey, and habits are largely dependent on subspecies and habitat. Wolf colouring varies from bright white in the Arctic region to various mixes of grey, black, red, and brown in other regions. Wolf lifespans average between 6 and 8 years in the wild, although they can live up to 13 years. In captivity, wolves’ lifespan ranges up to 16 years. Wolves are large animals, up 160 centimetres in length (excluding their 30 to 50-centimetre tail), and weigh up to 80 kilograms (175 pounds). Wolves prey on large ungulates, such as elk, deer, and even moose, and help to keep prey populations in check. When they have taken down one of these animals, wolves gorge, each wolf consuming up to 9 kilograms (20 pounds) of food in one sitting. They supplement their diet with small animals, fish, fruit, and reptiles. Their own populations wax and wane in response to population changes among prey animals.

Wolves hunt in packs and have done so for thousands of years—a behaviour that has helped to mold a highly developed, complex society within the species. Packs centre around an alpha male and female couple (often the only members who reproduce) and vary in size between 4 and 12 members, with some exceptional packs numbering greater than 30. The packs are territorial, “owning” regions that can be as large as hundreds of square kilometres. They traverse vast distances in their territory each day, seeking prey. Some experts believe that howling—that eerie hallmark of this unique species—is a key element of territory establishment, acting both as a warning to other packs and a call to gathering among pack members.

A Canadian Icon Across the ancient aeons of this once-wild continent, the wolf roamed free. Its lifestyle became intrinsically woven with the broader fabric of the wilderness, its population ebbing and flowing with that of its prey—even as the wolf itself helped to regulate prey populations in turn. It is an animal of cycles, riding the tide of the wilderness, thriving and languishing by turns throughout the countless millennia of its life in this land, singing its song to the coming and going of the moon. In its rich history, as in its haunting, primordial wail, the wolf pack’s eerie chorus reminds us that, though most of us are relatively recent emigrants, Canada is an ancient land—a land far beyond the mundane, where resilient canines have survived the massive span of millennia and kilometres in harsh, remote conditions. The wolf’s power and mystery, intermingled with the warm familiarity of its reliance on community, embody the sharp contrasts of this land.

2013 $25 FINE SILVER COIN O CANADA SERIES – THE CARIBOU

The fourth coin in the Royal Canadian Mint’s exciting new O Canada series focusing on iconic Canadian images, this beautiful coin celebrates the great caribou—one of Canada’s most fascinating native species.

Description: The reverse design presents a caribou cow and calf standing in the rugged terrain of the Canadian North. The mother stands on the right, her head turned toward her calf, her left eye peering at the viewer. Her tall antlers reach skyward atop her large head and strong neck. Beside her, the knobby-kneed calf peers shyly at its mother, waiting for her signal. The two stand in a grass-filled early summer valley. Behind them, their herd travels toward a river in the far distance. Rocky mountain peaks rise to meet the far-off horizon. The reverse also features a stylized caribou hoof print.

Special Features:

• This is the fourth coin in the Royal Canadian Mint’s exciting new O Canada 1 oz silver coin series. The series focuses on iconic Canadian animals to celebrate all that makes Canada unique. Rendered in 99.99% pure silver with limited mintages, this series is sought after by collectors.
• The next and final coin in this series features the Orca, and is available as part of a subscription.
• Struck in premium proof finish with a mirrored background, this beautiful silver coin features an caribou in their natural habitat.
• Engraved in exquisite detail to celebrate one of Canada’s most important national icons.
• An excellent addition to any premium collection focused around nature or Canadiana.

Product Specifications:

 Item Number: 123185 

Face Value: 25 dollars

Mintage: 8,500

Composition: 99.99% pure silver

Weight (g): 31.39 Diameter (mm): 38

Edge: Serrated Finish: Proof

Certificate: Serialized

Artist: Pierre Leduc

Advertising Date: August 6, 2013

Launch Date: August 13, 2013

Packaging: Each coin is encapsulated and presented in a maroon clamshell case lined with flock and protected by a customized full color sleeve. Finished size: 67 mm x 67 mm

Complete certificate text: O Canada Canada’s national identity is much like its majestic landscape: diverse, storied, and sometimes elusive. In the ever-changing tectonics of Canadian culture, identifiers tend to reflect the nation’s multicultural nature and its geography, fauna and flora, and social and political institutions. Born of this complex background, Canadian icons are distinct because they carry meaning for all Canadians, regardless of where we live or how we came to be here. These are the images that plumb the depths of Canadian pride and kindle Canadians’ love for their home.

Ancient Spirit of the North: The Mighty Caribou

Rangifer tarandus, known as caribou in North America and reindeer in Eurasia, is a member of the Cervidae, or deer, family. In Canada, this family also includes moose, white-tailed deer, mule deer, and elk. Native to Canada, four subspecies of Rangifer tarandus occupy tundra and boreal zones spanning from the West Coast to Newfoundland and from the USA-Canada border to Ellesmere Island: the endangered Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) of the northern boreal region; the Barren Ground Caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus), which lives on the tundra north of the Woodland Caribou range; the small Peary Caribou (Rangifer tarandus pearyi) of the Arctic; and the Porcupine Caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) of Canada’s northern territories. In total, Canada is home to about 2.4 million caribou—one of the world’s largest populations.

Despite the relatively large size of Canada’s caribou population, some subspecies, such as the Woodland Caribou, are experiencing ongoing range decreases that threaten their survival. Considered by many conservationists to be an important umbrella species whose presence may be intrinsic to the subsistence of numerous other species. Canada’s caribou are the subject of concern in the face of climate change and habitat disruption.

This midsized ruminant lives primarily on nutrient-rich lichens in the winter, adding leaves and grasses to its diet as they become available in the warmer months. All caribou shovel their way to lichens through winter snows using specially adapted hooves. The hooves, whose rigidity changes with the seasons to give the animal greater grip on ice, rock, or boggy land, also grow much longer in winter to give the caribou greater traction on snow. The two dewclaws at the back of each hoof help to improve t