Description
With the 2024 $1 commemorative coin, L. M. Montgomery becomes the first author to be featured on a Canadian circulation coin, which shares a reverse design with this 99.99% pure silver coin marking the 150th anniversary (“150 YEARS ANS”) of the writer’s birth. On this silver piece, the modified design has been given a colour boost that highlights the Anne of Green Gables author’s inspiration and the most famous character of her imagination. It features a more detailed view of the P.E.I. landscape, along with a full-colour rendering of the fictional Anne Shirley – with her famous red hair. HST/GST Exempt.
The Design:
Designed by Canadian artist Brenda Jones, the coin’s selectively coloured reverse features a profile portrait of beloved Canadian author L. M. Montgomery (1874-1942) around the time Anne of Green Gables was written, along with her signature and the cat drawing she often included in inscriptions. The words “150 YEARS ANS” commemorate the 150th anniversary of her birth. As a tribute to the power of imagination in Montgomery’s life and works, the coin design flows from the engraved view of the prolific writer putting pen to paper (represented by the portfolio and inkwell) to her colourful inner world, where the novel’s eponymous heroine is seen gazing out at Canada’s Prince Edward Island – the idyllic setting for Anne of Green Gables, and the real-life inspiration for many of Montgomery’s stories. The obverse features the effigy of His Majesty King Charles III by Canadian artist Steven Rosati.