Swimming polar bear illustration featured on silver coin by the Royal Canadian Mint

This week the Royal Canadian Mint released a new $20 pure silver commemorative coin featuring my illustration of a swimming polar bear. You can see it at the Mint’s website here; however I’m not sure how long that URL will last because the previous two coins in this series sold out quickly. Here’s my photograph of it:

Royal Canadian Mint polar bear coin, designed by Emily S. Damstra

As you can see from the photograph, the part of the bear above the water line is shiny, and the sky has a different finish than the water. I like the different finishes. The card that comes with the coin includes my original sketch of the bear. Below is my photo of one side of the trifold package:

Packaging for $20 polar bear coin, ©Royal Canadian Mint

My design was inspired, in part, by a visit to the Detroit Zoo a few years ago. There, a clear tunnel through the polar bear enclosure enables one to get a close-up view of swimming polar bears. This photo shows a bear standing in the water on top of the tunnel.

Photograph by Emily S. Damstra