Released in 1994, this $20 sterling silver coin is the tenth release in Canada's acclaimed ten-coin series, Powered Flight in Canada: The First 50 Years. Celebrate Canada's aviation heroes and their groundbreaking achievements.

This piece honors the Vickers Vedette and Wilfrid Thomas Reid, a British engineer who helped design the Vedette and is celebrated as one of the founding pioneers of Canada's aircraft industry, 

The Design

The reverse features the Vickers Vedette along with a 24-karat gold plated cameo portrait of Wilfrid Thomas Reid. The obverse features the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Dora de Pédery-Hunt.

The Vickers Vedette

A vital piece of 1920s Canadian aviation history, the Canadian Vickers Vedette was a pusher-biplane flying boat designed chiefly for aerial photography and forestry patrols. It holds a significant legacy: between the World Wars, it was the most heavily produced aircraft model in the country and the very first Canadian-built plane manufactured for the commercial market.