Composition : 99.99% silver
Mintage : 8,500

Lady of the North Land: Celebrating a Canadian Allegory

France has Marianne, England celebrates Britannia, America holds dear its Lady Liberty. For centuries, nations have adopted female personification to allegorically represent an idealized national image linked to classical iconography. In the years following Confederation, through the First World War and in various forms until the middle of the 20th century, Canada too had a well-known feminine national allegory, Miss Canada, whose emergence and evolution in Canada's formative era reflects the fascinating and often complex story of Canadian nationalism.

In her earliest years, this Canadian allegorical figure was portrayed as the daughter of England's feminine allegory, Britannia. In the classical robes of ancient Greece and Rome, Miss Canada was youthful and obedient to her august elder. The image was used in many ways, from political cartoons toproduct advertising. But as Canada's international relationships changed over time - particularly its links with both England and the United States - so did the treatment and use of the Miss Canada allegory. By the outset of the First World War, she was sowell known as to form part of the mythological vernacular of the country, having also appeared in literature by this time.

The First World War was a time of massive upheaval around the world but also within Canada itself. As the young country struggled to define its values, it engaged in a fluid and often disorienting dance between past and present. Although Canada was still a Dominion of the British Empire, nationalism was gaining momentum. At the sametime, the tension between Canada's original European settlement groups - the French and the English - was ongoing, fueled bycontemporary events and public policy. Women were fighting for the vote. Discovery and "progress" on multiple fronts were changing the way people lived and worked. In short, "Canada,"still largely amorphous, struggled to define itself at a time when its western cultural context was itself undergoing massive change.

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CANADA, AN ALLEGORY - 2013 CANADIAN COINS is categorised COINS AND PAPER MONEY / 08- ROYAL CANADIAN MINT / 13- CANADIAN HISTORY and sold by l'Imaginaire, a store and specialised website.