Peacekeeping and the Canadian Identity

For a relatively small, young country, Canada has made a significant contribution to international peacekeeping over the last half-century. Present at the inception of the United Nations mandate for official military peacekeeping interventions, Canada played a key role in one of the UN Emergency Force?s first interventions: the 1956 Suez crisis in Egypt. This contribution not only earned Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson the Nobel Peace Prize but was also a pivotal moment in Canadians? understanding of their nation?s place on the world stage.

KEY SPECIAL FEATURES

• Celebrate Canada?s proud history of peacekeeping with this exclusive coin available only to Master?s Club members.
• The fifth coin in our popular series of renewed silver 1-dollar coins.
• Selective gold plating on the reverse and obverse lends rich patina and visual interest to a classic design.

?SPECIAL FEATURES

• Celebrate Canada?s proud history of peacekeeping with this exclusive coin available only to Master?s Club members.
• The fifth coin in our popular series of renewed silver 1-dollar coins.
• Selective gold plating on the reverse and obverse lends rich patina and visual interest to a classic design.
• Very limited mintage of only 2,500 coins.
• An exclusive addition to any collection featuring Canadian historical coins, circulation coins, or Canadiana.

DID YOU KNOW?

• The reverse design for this coin is based on the Canadian 1995 one-dollar circulation coin commemorating Canadian peacekeepers. The image depicts the Peacekeeping Monument, Reconciliation, which stands in the heart of Canada?s national capital. This monument, designed by Canadian artists Jack Harman, Richard Henriquez, and Cornelia Oberlander, presents two male peacekeepers and one female peacekeeper on a rubble-like stone base, looking out from high ground.
• Canada?s peacekeeping experience during the Suez crisis was an important motivator behind Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson?s drive to give Canada its own flag. During the crisis, Egypt requested that Canadian troops not participate on the ground because the flag on their uniforms?which at the time was the Red Ensign that bears an image of the Union Jack?closely resembled that of England. The Egyptian leadership could not guarantee that its people would not confuse Canadians with the British, whom Egypt considered an enemy in the conflict.

DESIGN

The reverse image features the design from the Canadian 1995 one-dollar circulation coin depicting the Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa, Ontario. The central figure on the image is plated in gold. The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Dora de Pedery Hunt. Her Majesty?s effigy is plated in gold.