Next up on my silver $5 journey is the 2012 Rick Hansen World in Motion Tour 25th Anniversary coin. I started writing this post three months ago, but it got put aside as other things took priority.
After roughly a three-year gap, the
Royal Canadian Mint (
RCM) issued a new 36 millimeter (mm) commemorative $5 coin in 2012. The new coin marked the 25th anniversary of Rick Hansen's "World in Motion" Tour (WIM Tour). (In 2011, the
RCM launched a new $5 series - its "Full Moon" series of four silver-and-niobium coins; the niobium coins are 28 mm in diameter (vs. 36.07 mm) and weigh just 8.5 grams vs. the 25.175 grams of the 36 mm series.)
Rick Hansen was born on August 26, 1957 in Port Albernie, British Columbia. On June 27, 1973, he was involved in a car accident and was thrown from the back of the pickup truck while returning from a fishing trip; he was 15 at the time. As a result of the accident, Rick injured his spinal cord and was paralyzed from the waist down - he thus became a paraplegic.
His story doesn't end with the injury, however. His will to achieve, succeed and inspire led to him soon becoming active in wheelchair sports. Between 1979 and 1984, he won 19 international wheelchair marathons, nine gold medals at the Pan-American Wheelchair Games and six medals at the Paralympic Games. At the 1980 Paralympic Games in Arnhem, Holland, Hansen won three medals - gold in the 800 meter race, silver in the 1500 meter and bronze in the 4x100 meter relay. At the 1984 Paralympic Games in Stoke Mandeville, UK, Hansen won gold medals in the 1,500 meter race and the marathon, plus a silver medal in the 5000 meter.
Rick was a very active wheelchair basketball player and also competed in tennis, racquetball and volleyball events. He was recognized as Canada's National Disabled Athlete of the Year in 1979, 1980 and 1982. Rick was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
On March 21, 1985, Rick Hansen embarked on his WIM Tour to raise awareness about spinal cord injury and to raise money for additional research. Before he was done in May 1987 - 26 months later - the Tour had visited four continents and 34 countries; Rick wheeled 40,075 km (24,901.5 mi) around the world and established a world record for "Longest Wheelchair Marathon." The tour raised $26.1 million for spinal cord injury research.
Rick Hansen in 2008.To manage the money raised on his world tour and continue his dream of finding a cure for the effects of spinal cord injury, Hansen formed The Man in Motion World Tour Society, which later became the Rick Hansen Foundation. (You can visit the Foundation's web site at
www.rickhansen.com.)
The $5 silver commemorative coin was issued by the
RCM in 2012 to help mark the silver anniversary of the completion of the WIM Tour. First day ceremonies were conducted on April 25, 2012 in Vancouver, BC - Rick took part in the ceremony and spoke at the event. The $5 coin followed the souvenir medal set the
RCM produced and sold in 2011 to mark the anniversary tour's start. (I will update this post with images and a discussion of the 2011 medal at some point in the next week or so.)
The coin was struck on a 36.07 mm 0.9999 fine silver planchet; it was struck with a proof finish. The coin weighs 25.175 grams and has a reeded / serrated edge. The coin was placed on sale to the public on April 17, 2012.
The Susanna Blunt portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is on the coin's obverse; the Blunt portrait of QEII began appearing on Canada's coins in 2003 and continues to the present day.
Chris Reid and Rosina Li are the artists who created the commemorative reverse design. It presents an overhead view of Hansen in his wheelchair moving from left to right. In his wake are seen inscriptions, in English and French, of Hansen's key inspirational messages - Journey, Inspire, Dream, Together and Involvement. Presented prominently at the center is seen, "Anything is possible."
(Full Hansen quotes with this phrase include, "If you believe in a dream and have the courage to try, anything is possible." and "There is nothing you can't do, if you set your mind to it. Anything is possible.")
Per the
RCM web site, the fine lines in the reverse field are meant to "visually represent the new paths Hansen laid to cut through limiting perceptions of physical disability." The coin's bottom half is filled with a stylized logo for the 25th anniversary tour and corresponding inscriptions; the logo was developed by Epic Branding & Design of Vancouver, BC. Hansen was consulted regarding the coin's overall design and personally approved its use.
The coin was set in the standard
RCM maroon clamshell case, but it was inserted into a custom-themed outer sleeve that featured many of the design elements found on the reverse of the coin - Hansen's silhouette, his inspirational words and the WIM anniversary tour logo.
The
RCM announced a maximum mintage of 7,500 for the $5 coin. Per the
RCM's 2012 Annual Report (AR), just 3,409 of the silver coins were sold (~45% of the maximum); there was no mention of the coin in the 2013 AR. The coin, however, is generally available in the secondary marketplace, though at a wide range of offering prices.
The issue price for the coin was $69.95 CAD.
The coin was a nominee for the 2014 Coin of the Year award in the "Most Inspirational" category. It lost out to a copper-nickel five-pound coin from Alderney that recognized Remembrance Day, the day World War I hostilities ended.
Note: The Coin of the Year (COTY) awards are always two years behind the issue date; the 2014 awards were for coins released in 2012.I was able to purchase the Hansen silver $5 coin for $27 CAD -- well under my goal of $40 CAD per coin! That brings my five coin spend to $182 against a target of $200. Still below target!
Here's a link to the initial discussion of my 36 mm $5 commemorative coin pursuit:
New Collecting Pursuit
Image CreditsAs I'm having a few imaging issues at the moment, I have used RCM press/media images for the coin and sleeve to illustrate this post. I will try to add images of the coin in my collection soon.Credit for Rick Hansen image is via a Creative Commons licence; the image is by Urban Mixer (Raj Taneja).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Posted 07/27/2020 06:17 am
