Canada 50 Dollars, 2015

50 Dollars from Canada. Issued in 2015. Struck in Silver (.9999). Measures 65.25 mm and weighs 157.65 g.

Obverse

Effigy of King George V facing left, using the same design from 1911 (George V, King and Emperor of India by the grace of God)

Reverse

Designed by Canadian artist Tony Bianco, your coin masterfully combines vibrant colour withfinely detailed engraving to create a stirring scene of remembrance at a soldier’s grave. There is an unusual stillness in the air as two Canadian soldiers take the time to quietly remember a fallen friend and colleague, who lies buried far from home in a field that is resplendent with the red poppies described in John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields. With his head bentdown and hat removed, one solemn soldier stands to the left of the stone grave; on the right side of the image, the second soldier kneels before the cross on one leg, his head bent down in quiet reflection. These two soldiers are among the many who will help carry the legacy left behind by the fallen; it is they who will “take up our quarrel with the foe” and who will carry out the call to action described in the lines “to you from failing hands we throw / The torch; be yours to hold it high.” In the background, McCrae’s handwritten first line of his famous poem is inscribed in both English and in French: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow” and “Au champ d’honneur, les coquelicots.”

Edge

Serrated