Canada. New Wildlife Series Begins with Animal Portraits on Silver Proof Coins Featuring the Polar Bear

With the release of the first coin in the new Animal Portraits series, the addition of selectively gold-plating is applied to both the relief and background further enhancing the artistry seen on these pure silver coins. The launch design features an exceptional image of Ursus maritimus, otherwise known as the indomitable polar bear. Canada is home to more than two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population, or approximately 16,000 of the 20,000-25,000 bears that live in Polar Regions. As such, it is fitting that the first coin travels to the Great White North’s Arctic region for a view of one of its most impressive inhabitants, the great northern bear, which is also the largest of Canada’s four resident bear species. Polar bears are forever linked to the Arctic sea ice where they hunt their seal prey. The bears are found in five regions, namely the US state of Alaska, the northern territories of Canada, Greenland, the Northern coast of Norway and Northern Siberia.

A polar bear's home range can be enormous, far greater than that of other bears. As such, they don’t have territories, partly because their sea ice habitat is always moving and changing with the seasons. The area they will inhabit expands in winter and retreats in summer but, the bears must always follow the changing ice in search of their prey. Most polar bears limit travel to home ranges of a few hundred kilometres but there was recently one satellite-tracked female that trekked 4,796 kilometres. Her extraordinary path stretched from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay to Greenland to Canada's Ellesmere Island and back to Greenland again.

Designed by artist Trevor Tennant, the reverse side features an engraved portrait of the polar bear surrounded by yellow gold plating. Moving across the snow-covered ice that lies at the sea’s edge, the polar bear looks off to the side as it steps out of the central portion of the design, placing its forepaws onto the outer portion where the text CANADA and year of issue 2025 are engraved. The obverse side includes the effigy of HM King Charles III which is the work of Canadian artist Steven Rosati and depicts the King facing to the left surrounded by the legend CHARLES III D · G · REX. The denomination 20 DOLLARS is placed just under the King’s likeness which is selectively plated in pure gold.

Available from the 13^th March, each coin is encapsulated and presented as a separate purchase in a black leatherette custom case accompanied with a numbered certificate of authenticity. The coin is also available as a subscription with the remaining two designs released in July (Elk) and November (Grey Fox). A specially designed collector case to house and display all three coins is offered complementary with each subscription. For additional information, please visit the e-webshop of the Royal Canadian Mint.