Royal Canadian Mint: New Featured Coin Artist Peter McKinnon

Last updated on May 2nd, 2024 at 03:35 pm

Last Updated on May 2, 2024 Posted by Colonial Acres Coins

The Royal Canadian Mint is well known for showcasing Canadian creative talent and has worked with a number of highly skilled artists, illustrators and photographers

over the years to produce some of their most unique and collectable coins. The Mint’s latest collaboration is with star photographer and video blogger Peter McKinnon, who has produced an innovative two-coin series featuring two of Canada’s most famous landscapes, Moraine Lake and Mount Rundle.

Spectacular Shots of Moraine Lake and Mount Rundle

Moraine Lake, in Banff National Park in Alberta, is one of Canada’s most iconic landmarks and thousands of visitors come to photograph the ten mountain peaks towering above the turquoise waters of the glacially fed lake every year. Like so many Canadians and visitors to Canada, Peter McKinnon was awestruck by the beauty of Moraine Lake and became obsessed with capturing the splendour of the lake in the different seasons. Now his vision of Moraine Lake has finally been captured and immortalized in a limited-edition collector’s coin.

This is the first Canadian landscape to be depic

ted in the two-coin Peter McKinnon Photo Series and was released in April 2019. Moraine Lake is captured for posterity in full colour on a 2oz silver coin that has a 50mm diameter and a $30 denomination. Adding to the artistry and enhancing the design, the image is surrounded by an edge engraving of the aperture blades of a camera lens that gives the impression of looking through a camera’s lens. As an added bonus, photography experts will recognize the “f-stop” aperture setting engraved on one of the blades.

The second coin in the series will be released on 25 June 2019 and features Mount Rundle, also beautifully photographed and depicted through the lens blades of a camera. The Peter McKinnon designed coins are available individually or as a set which includes a two-coin beauty box to showcase these spectacular landscapes. Both coins have the artists signature rather than just his initials and only 5000 of each will be minted.

Who is Peter McKinnon?

Peter McKinnon is an internationally renowned Toronto photographer, filmmaker and social media sensation with his own YouTube channel with millions of followers around the world. He enjoys all aspects of photography, but landscapes are his passion.

McKinnon’s fascination with photography began when his sister got married and everyone in the wedding party was given a cam

era to capture the day. The camera had a macro setting an d McKinnon took a photo of the wet grass in the yard and seeing the huge drops of water on the blades of grass changed his view of the world forever. After that day, photography took over his life and now he offers inspiration and advice to his legion of followers across the globe.

The Royal Canadian Mint

The Royal Canadian Mint is a Crown corporation, ope

rating under the Royal Canadian Mint Act and taking responsibility for the minting and distribution of all Canada’s circulation coins. The Mint also designs and manufactures circulation coins for other countries as well as precious and base metal collector coins, medals, tokens, gold, silver, palladiu m and platinum bullion coins. Permission was given in 1901 for the first Canadian Mint to be built in Ottawa and the presses started operating in 1908. All Canadian circulation coins were minted in Ottawa until the Mint facility in Winnipeg was officially opened in 1976 because the Ottawa Mint had reached full capacity. Today the Royal Canadian Mint is recognized as one of the largest and most versatile mints in the world and offers a wide range of high-quality coins and other services.