Winnipeg is home to the Royal Canadian Mint which continues to create one of the most annoying botanical blunders in our country. When people think of Canada, the sugar maple leaf usually springs to mind. One would think that those leaves on our penny are from a maple, but in fact they are leaves from a sycamore or plane tree. A sycamore's leaves grow alternately along a stem (like the leaves on the penny), while maple leaves are oppositely attached along the stem. The one we have to blame for this embarrassment is George Kruger-Gray, who must have never looked very closely at a maple tree and had no botanist friends. The only other coin that he designed in Canada is the back of the nickel. It seems that he researched this one a bit more, since as far as I can tell it actually looks like a beaver, not a coypu or other R.O.U.S.
3 comments:
I never knew that about the penny!
Interesting stuff.
Also,
lovin' the Princess Bride references.
Martine
Ps.
Apparently the loon on the loonie was only the second place winner design...I heard that the first place winner's template was lost in the mail or something ridiculous like that.
Martine
I wonder what the original design was? At least the second choice fit our animal money motif. I still think that we should call the toonie a doubloonie though; it would make me feel a bit more like a pirate :)
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