Dark Side Evoked In New $20 Coin

The Royal Canadian Mint's design for a new $20 silver coin -- which went on sale Wednesday for collectors around the world -- has inadvertently evoked one of the darkest moments in the history of polar exploration and raised concerns with the country's main Inuit organization.

Unveiled earlier this month as the mint's showcase offering in its latest line of collectibles, the coin was struck to mark the 125th anniversary of the International Polar Year scientific studies and features a "world first" metallic blue finish meant to mimic the Arctic's icy hues.

One side of the coin carries the current portrait of Queen Elizabeth. The other depicts 16th-century English explorer Martin Frobisher and a compass rose from his era, along with images of the ship he sailed in search of the fabled Northwest Passage and an Inuit man paddling his kayak in ice-choked waters.

The main elements are framed by an iceberg at the top of the coin and a polar bear at the bottom.

A mint spokesman said the kayaker is simply meant to represent the indigenous people of the North, and their role in Arctic exploration. But the combination of elements recalls an infamous episode from Frobisher's 1576 voyage to Baffin Island and the tragic fate of an unnamed Inuit paddler who was lured aboard the explorer's ship, the Gabriel, and kidnapped for transport back to England as token proof of the expedition's success in reaching the New World.

The story of the kidnapping, well-documented by Canadian historians, has been recounted with fresh detail in a new book -- Transatlantic Encounters: American Indians in Britain, 1500-1776 -- by U.S. historian Alden Vaughan. He quotes contemporary sources describing how Frobisher drew the wary Inuk to his ship by seeming to offer him a bell before dropping the "gift" in the sea and quickly grabbing the confused victim -- hauling him, kayak and all, aboard the Gabriel.

The Inuit captive, one of the first native North Americans known to have reached Europe, was put on circus-style display in England and became the subject of several portraits, including one intended for Frobisher's sponsor, Queen Elizabeth I.

But the Inuit man died, probably of pneumonia or exposure to European disease, just weeks after the Gabriel's return voyage to England.

The same sad end came to three other kidnapped Inuit -- a man, woman and child seized by Frobisher on his next voyage to Baffin Island in 1577 -- before violent clashes with the native inhabitants of the Eastern Arctic helped end English attempts that century to find a northern sea route to China or hoped-for deposits of Canadian gold and silver.

Frobisher's failure "probably saved many Inuit lives: immediately in the clashes between Englishmen and Inuits that would otherwise have occurred in eastern Canada," Vaughan writes, "and eventually in the one or more Inuits who almost surely would have been seized and carried to England."

The mint's Alexandre Reeves told CanWest News Service that the new coin's echoing of the 1576 encounter between Frobisher and the Inuk paddler is a coincidence and that the design is not connected to specific individuals from the past.

"Many Arctic images are depicted on this coin, which form a collage: a polar bear, an iceberg and Frobisher, who played a significant role in discovering the North," the mint said in a formal statement. "We felt it was important to also feature an Inuit, as they were the first polar explorers."

But the coin's unintended reference to the 1576 abduction troubled officials with the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada's main national Inuit organization, which is now seeking input in future coin designs involving Canada's Inuit.

"Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is pleased to see the Arctic depicted on a collector coin such as this, and welcomes appropriate depictions of Inuit on future coins," ITK president Mary Simon said. "But to avoid future controversy or misunderstanding, the mint should consult with ITK in cases where Inuit are being depicted."

The new coin is described by the mint as globally "unique" because of the "leading edge plasma effect" -- recently perfected by the federal Crown agency's research and development team -- that leaves a "jewel-like finish on a coin by virtue of a proprietary coating which can produce different colours by varying its thickness."

On Wednesday, a limited edition of 7,000 polar-themed coins with the blue finish went on sale with a suggested retail price of nearly $250 each. Another 15,000 of the coins with standard silver finish are to be sold for about $65 apiece.