If I felt like I had $340 to throw around on a whim, I’d pick one up. It’s kind of lovely.
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This is an interesting, fun design. But I just came here to ask somebody with more knowledge about coins than I have whether the “heads” side of a coin–especially one that displays the likeness of the sovereign–can ever be the “reverse”?
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I was going to bring up proof sets but you beat me to it. Not all that many people who didn’t collect coins are familiar with them. And outside of the wonderful quarters, coin collecting got WAY boring after clad coinage started to drive out all of the fun stuff from just happening in ordinary change.
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You would think that after having lost their big maple leaf in the 2007 theft from the Bode Museum, the RC Mint would have scaled back their boundary pushing coins, but they have not.
BERLIN — A giant gold coin that was stolen from a museum in the heart of Berlin this year was probably smashed or melted down and will most likely never be recovered, the authorities said on Wednesday, as they announced four arrests, including that of a museum security guard.
However, when it comes to ‘collectible’ coins from the RCM, the only safe bets IMHO are the standard set of coins the year a big special series of coins comes out, and as such standard coin production numbers drop accordingly. The first time this occurred in large scale was in 1992, and it happened again in 1999/2000. There have since been lots of additional quarter designs, and so perhaps if you like collecting variations, just looking for these quarters makes an interesting set (though they will generally not be worth much more than a quarter each). Also worth looking for are any error coins and bills, or rare signature combos.
ANY of the proof editions of the coins from the RCM are generally a poor investment, and their value will likely only remain, at best, near the sale price, or at worst, half the sale price, or lower. You can test this by asking any coin dealer what their buy price is for any such coin, and see what you would likely get if you had one.
Best place to get these coins is at auction, when coin collections are put up for sale with the hopes of cashing in someone’s estate, only to learn it brings in only a fraction of the cost.
A far better investment is the Canada Post annual books, which include one example of every stamp from that year and a nice hardcover book. Use the stamps if you need to, and you still have a nice book for your library.
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I had the same question, without any more knowledge. Looking it up it seems that, by convention, the side with the head is the obverse, but the rules are flexible, especially when neither side has a head but just a pattern.
In this case, since there are obviously lots of tails on the animal side, I’m calling that “Tails” and saying it’s the reverse. 
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What’s the bitcoin price now? Yesterday? Tomorrow?
The side with the queen is the obverse. From the linked article:
Designed by Alisha Giroux, your coin is a re-imagining of the map of Canada, with stylized birds or mammals … The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.
Of course the reverse is presented first because that’s the interesting part. The BB article is in the wrong to call the queen-side the reverse.
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Expect to see new slot machine designs in Vegas soon.
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Is it against the BBC style guide to just include Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II among the ‘stylized mammals’?
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I’m not aware of any Canadian coins that do not have the monarch, “CANADA” and the denomination on the front. Not even this monstrosity.
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My post wasn’t just about Canadian coins.
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I think coins should be shaped like shoes you can wear on your feet. or popsicles .
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It has a legal tender face value of fifty Canadian dollars, so it’s definitely a coin in “the coin of the land” kind of way. In terms of being a coin, well, there are things that are generally thought of as coins that are not round. Some antique Asian examples come to mind.
OK, I was with you up until the point when I realized I don’t really have a notion of the meaning of the word coing.
I think we all know that’s a hairball. 
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It would be interesting to see what would happen if you actually tried to use this as payment at it’s face value. I’m guessing that you would probably have a difficult time. When you combine that with the cost, the “money-ness” of this is theoretical. In fact, I speculated that proof coins and comemoratives like this could be use in money laundering or illegal transactions. eg. I buy a pack of gum and some illegal drugs and pay with this. The seller gives me $49 change and rings the transaction up. Or I give a $500 campaign contribution to a politician in the form of 10 of these.
Coins don’t have to be disks. There have been coins in hexagon and octagon shapes. There have been cowries, knife money and spade money in China. Yap Island has enormous limestone disks. All it really has to be is a more-or-less flat piece of metal used a currency.
Still, it’s really bringing up the cost of the MAME cabinet I haven’t built yet. THIS IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOR…UNLESS YOU BEAT MY HIGH SCORE.
It was OG going to take orchid plants that overran their pots as coins. Nobody needs to see that air root surgery.
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