Royal Canadian Mint to release new Ukrainian Easter egg coin. Photos
The fourth pysanka coin in the collection of the Royal Canadian Mint is an easy-to-hold version of Vegreville’s world-famous Ukrainian Easter egg.
“At the eastern edge of Vegrevillle, Alberta, stands an egg-shaped symbol of harmony. The 2,300-kilogram pysanka is a centennial monument to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It is a wonder of computer-aided design, complete with colourful patterns that are a celebration of peace, history and tradition. Our fourth pysanka coin is an easy-to-hold version of Vegreville’s world-famous Ukrainian Easter egg,” reads the description on the website of the Royal Canadian Mint.
There will be colourful patterns on the reverse, and the profile of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse. The weight of the coin will be 31.82 g, the face value - 20 Canadian dollars. Shipping starts on February 5, and the mintage will be 5,000 coins.
The world's largest monument to the Ukrainian Easter egg (pysanka) was erected by the Vegreville Chamber of Commerce in 1975. The Ukrainian Easter Egg Festival takes place near the monument every summer. It took more than 12,000 hours to design, manufacture and assemble the gigantic pysanka. The Vegreville Pysanka measures 7.8 metres (25.7 feet) long by 5.5 metres (18 feet) wide and turns in a strong wind. Beneath the giant egg is a written caption in four different languages (English, French, German and Ukrainian), which speaks to the community’s multicultural history.
Photo: www.mint.ca
