H i s to r y
&
M u s e u m s
64
FunFact
Royal Canadian Mint
Take the Royal Canadian Mint Tour
– WOrth Its Weight in Silver
>>Change is always good at the Royal Canadian Mint, where over the years
they've brought into being more than 55 billion coins, and created currency
for 75 countries around the world. You could say the Mint has stopped making
"cents" (having phased out the penny earlier this year), but there's still plenty of
change afoot — more than a billion Canadian circulation coins each year, in fact,
as well as medals, medallions, tokens and commemorative coins. www.mint.ca.
The original
design for
the loonie was of the
voyageurs, but the mold
was lost between Ottawa
and Winnipeg and never
recovered. Did it fall off a
truck? Nobody knows and
so to prevent counterfeit
money, the design was
changed to the loonie.
And The Writing's on the wall
at the Forks' Wall Through Time
>>From great floods to early forts to the heyday of the fur trade, you can
catch up on 6,000 years of history at The Forks via this wall-affixed series
of marble plaques and informative signs. Located on the western edge of
a major archaeological find, the Wall also protects an Aboriginal campsite
and trade centre dating back thousands of years. The related Path through
Time sculpture features two bronze shells and a stunning limestone
centrepiece. www.theforks.com.
