Fine Art
Designing Collectible Coins for the Royal Canadian Mint
Jan 12, 2012
Artwork and photos from Designing Collectible Coins for the Royal Canadian Mint by Gary Taxali
Designing Collectible Coins for the Royal Canadian Mint
Creating limited edition collectible coins for the Royal Canadian Mint has been a highlight of my career. I was fortunate to collaborate with the Mint to design a series of six 2012 Celebration Coins -- for Birthday, Wedding, O Canada, New Baby, Tooth Fairy, and Holiday occasions.
One of the most special aspects of this project was that I used my custom typeface, "Chumply", on the coins. This marked the first time the Royal Canadian Mint allowed an artist to alter a coin's typeface -- a fact I am very proud of.
The coins also featured Canada's first Augmented Reality (AR) experience, developed with AR experts Helen Papagiannis and daqri.
As Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint, said: "The Royal Canadian Mint is always looking for new ways to design coins which celebrate themes of importance to Canadians and the original creation of Gary Taxali has been a wonderful addition to our holiday collection."
Fun fact: the name "Taxali" means "superintendent of the mint" in modern Hindi -- a name bestowed upon an ancestor 300 years ago when he created a coin that was difficult to counterfeit. As Maclean's Magazine put it: "Few Canadians can afford an oil painting by Gary Taxali, whose whimsical, vintage-inspired art sells for as much as $10,000 and is part of collections in New York's Whitney and London's Victoria and Albert museums."
Press coverage:
View the full coin collection in my portfolio. Prints available at shop.garytaxali.com.
