2016-02-20 Sat

To celebrate the Chinese new year, The Royal Canadian Mint has issued the 2016 Dragon Dance Fine Silver Coin on 8th February 2016.

Harvey Chan designed the reverse of this 99.99% silver coin which features an image of a traditional Chinese dragon controlled by puppeteers. A pearl of wisdom is placed in the dragon’s open mouth. Longer dragons are considered to be luckier than shorter ones, and the abundant folds of this dragon’s tail portray wealth and prosperity.

The obverse features Susanna Blunt’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, with ‘ELIZABETH II’ and ‘D.G. REGINA’ which is the short for Dei Gratia Regina, or “By the grace of God, Queen”.

Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, signals a time of rebirth and traditionally begins a time of looking ahead with optimism toward the upcoming planting season.