1/2 oz. Pure Silver Coloured Coin - Birds Among Nature's Colours: Purple Martin

GORGEOUS! Showcases a beautifully engraved bird in its colourful Canadian habitat! Order today!

Known for their smooth gliding and morning song, purple martins (Progne subis) are happy to return time and time again to the multi-roomed nest boxes and birdhouses we put up for them! This avian "urbanite" is more common in the east than the west; but wherever it nests, the black-blue songbird is a delightful sight—particularly in flight, when it acrobatically veers and accelerates to catch beetles, moths, flies, wasps and more!

The purple martin is Canada's largest swallow. It is highly social, often feeding in pairs during the day and migrating in impressive numbers. A male may allow another's presence in its foraging territory, but intruders beware: should another bird attempt to enter a pair's nesting compartment, a physical altercation will likely ensue and the fight will continue all the way down to the ground!

An ideal gift for a bird lover and a fun addition to your existing coin display! Order today!

• FOURTH IN THE SERIES! Your coin is the fourth in the five-coin series that showcases a beautifully engraved bird in its colourful Canadian habitat.
• DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS BIRD-THEMED COINS! Gorgeous colour highlights the foreground and background, while the image of the bird allows the pure silver colour to shine through, creating a unique viewing experience as the bird almost appears to be silhouetted against the bright imagery around it.
• ALSO AVAILABLE AS PART OF A 5-COIN SUBSCRIPTION! Subscribe today and receive a FREE collector case with your first coin! Each of your coins fit in a beautiful custom paperboard box that is as colourful as each of your coins in the subscription. Lift the lid to uncover a delightful surprise: it doubles as a music box—complete with a musical element that recreates a bird song!
• 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 Derek C. Wicks, your coin features a richly detailed, engraved portrait of a purple martin (Progne subis). Canada's largest swallow is viewed from below, its claws firmly gripping a stalk of foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). Its forked tail and long, slender profile give the martin an elegant air as it turns its head towards the left side of the coin, as though studying its surroundings for signs of insect prey. Selective colour conveys the soft glow of a warm summer morning, when the sun's early rays shine down upon the pastel-coloured tubular flowers that cast a gentle shadow behind them.

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

Order today!

Specifications

• Mintage: 15,000
• Composition: 99.99% pure silver
• Finish: proof
• Weight (g): 15.87
• Diameter (mm): 34
• Edge: serrated
• Certificate: serialized
• Face value: 10 dollars
• Artist: Derek C. Wicks (reverse), Susanna Blunt (obverse)