After an eight-year gap, Canada issued another nickel dollar commemorative coin in 1982. It was in celebration of the control of the Canadian Constitution (formerly the British North America Act of 1867) being transferred from the British Parliament to Canada ("patriation"). The Royal Proclamation that effected the transfer was signed on April 17, 1982 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Quebec, Canada. The Proclamation was signed by Queen Elizabeth II, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Minister of Justice Jean Chrétien. The Queen was presented with the first of the new coins.
At the time of the patriation, an update was made to the Constitution that enabled future amendments and a
Charter of Rights and Freedoms was added. The
Charter is a guarantee of certain rights to Canadian citizens:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly;
(d) freedom of association.
1982 Canadian Constitution Patriation Nickel Dollar
The dollar's commemorative reverse design is based on the 1883 historical painting "The Fathers of Confederation" by Robert Harris. The painting
depicted an imagined, combined portrait of the mix of delegates to the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences in 1864; not all delegates attended both Conferences. The painting
was hung in Canada's Parliament Building. I use the past tense to describe the Harris painting as the original was destroyed by fire in the 1916 Parliament Building fire.
The Fathers of Confederation - Rex Woods
(Image Credit: Parliament of Canada. Fair use, education.)In 1964, Rex Woods was commissioned by Confederation Life, an insurance company, to re-create the painting. Woods added the three rightmost figures (two seated, one standing) plus the portrait painting of Robert Harris (right wall) - an homage to the original painting's artist. The three added "Fathers" were delegates to the London Conference (England) - the follow-up to the first two Conferences in Canada - but did not attend either the Charlottetown or Quebec Conferences; the new Fathers are Robert Duncan Wilmot (second chair, w/ beard), William Pearce Howland (standing) and John William Ritchie (front chair, no beard).
The Mint did not sponsor an outside contest for the coin's design, choosing instead to assign the design project to its in-house team with Master Engraver Ago Aarand as the team lead. The chosen design reflected Woods' recreation of the original Harris painting - one difference between painting and coin is that the depiction on the coin does not include the hanging portrait of Robert Harris.
1982 Mintage FiguresCirculation Coin: 11,812,000
Collector Coin: 107,353 [Cased Dollar]
The coin was available individually in circulation (at face value) and cased for $9.75. (Prices in Canadian Dollars) The 1982 Constitution dollar marked the first time the Mint issued a Voyageur dollar and a Commemorative dollar for circulation in the same year. The Voyageur dollar, rather than the Constitution dollar, was included in the annual Uncirculated Set, "Double Cent" Specimen Set and "Double Dollar" Prestige Set.
The dollar was encapsulated and inserted into a maroon tray inside of a rectangular maroon clam shell case with a 3-D grey maple leaf on its lid. The clam shell was placed in a textured, white, two-piece box with a maple leaf printed in black on the outside of its lid.
1982 Constitution Dollar - Clam Shell - Outer
1982 Constitution Dollar - Clam Shell - Inner
1982 Constitution Dollar - Clam Shell - Box
For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including more Canadian Commemorative stories, see:
Commems Collection.
Posted 08/08/2023 2:57 pm
