Pure Silver Coloured Coin - Celebration of Spring: Lilac Blossoms (2017)

A gorgeous coin featuring a lilac in full bloom! Order today!

One of the loveliest signs of spring, the fragrant lilac blooms as the weather warms! The flowering shrub featured on the coin's reverse is a uniquely Canadian contribution to lilac cultivars: the Preston lilac, which was named for its creator, Isabella Preston (1881 – 1965). Canada's first female hybridist was also one of our most acclaimed ornamental plant breeders; throughout her 26-year career at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, Ontario, Preston introduced almost 200 new hybrids—including the hardy, late-blooming lilac featured here in outstanding colour!

A beautiful gift for a nature-lover! Order today!

• SPRINGTIME IN CANADA! Your coin's pure silver surface shines bright—like sunlight on a warm spring day!
• YOU CAN ALMOST SMELL ITS SWEET FRAGRANCE! The application of soft mauve and deep green colour re-create the pleasing hues of a lilac shrub in full bloom—you can almost smell its sweet fragrance in the close-up view of the bloom's perfectly curled petals!
• COLOURS THAT PLEASE THE EYE The use of full colour over engraving creates a beautifully textured depiction of an enchanting encounter in a Canadian forest!
• INCLUDES SERIALIZED CERTIFICATE: The Royal Canadian Mint certifies all of its collector coins. Most of these are serialized certifications, meaning that each certificate is given a unique number, starting at 1.
• 99.99% PURE SILVER! Your coin has no GST/HST and a limited worldwide mintage.

Designed by Canadian artist Jan Poynter, your coin combines life-like colour and detailed engraving to re-create the springtime display of a lilac in full bloom. This depiction showcases the Preston lilac (Syringa x prestoniae), which was created in 1920 at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, Ontario, by Canada's first female hybridist: Isabella Preston (1881-1965). The realistic representation of this late blooming, Canadian variety is in keeping with the style of traditional botanical illustrations, which is particularly fitting given the lilac's rich history. The application of vivid mauve and deep green colours capture the magnificence of the blooms and foliage; but a separate depiction of a branch beneath the shrub highlights the more tubular, open-flowering nature of the Preston 'Isabella' (Villosae Group) blossoms. To the left is a close-up view of the purple blooms that have become synonymous with the uplifting fragrance and colours of spring.

• Lilacs (genus Syringa) are members of the olive family, Oleaceae.
• Lilacs are not native to Canada: they are European or Asian wild species or cultivated varieties (cultivars), derived from them. Isabella Preston's lilacs were cultivars derived from two Asian Syringa species.
• One of the most widespread species in Canada is the common purple lilac (Syringa vulgaris), which is native to southeastern Europe—specifically the Balkans—but was introduced to Canada by settlers.
• Preston lilacs were selected to flower two weeks later than other cultivated lilacs. This avoids late frosts, and makes them hardy for the Canadian climate!
• Hailed as the "Queen of Ornamental Horticulture", Isabella Preston was the first to focus on breeding ornamental plants at the Central Experimental Farm, where she helped develop much of the Farm's collection of lilac species.
• Many of the 71 cultivated varieties (cultivars) of Preston lilacs were named for Shakespeare heroines. Preston also named her crab apple hybrids after Canadian lakes, irises after Canadian rivers, and lilies after office workers and Allied aircraft of the Second World War.
• Featured on the reverse, the 'Isabella' (Villosae Group) cultivar received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Merit in 1941.

Your coin is encapsulated and presented in a Royal Canadian Mint-branded maroon clamshell with a black beauty box.