One of our lovely readers, Janet, reached out recently with a special piece to showcase here: a collector's coin, produced by the Royal Canadian
A sparkling new collector’s coin from the Royal Canadian Mint features Queen Elizabeth II’s Sapphire Jubilee Snowflake Brooch in its design. The special brooch was gifted to the late Queen in 2017 by the then-Governor General of Canada, David Johnston, on behalf of the nation. It was presented to her during her visit to Canada House in London to celebrate both the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation and Elizabeth II’s Sapphire Jubilee.
The brooch was created by Hillberg & Berk, a Saskatchewan-based jewelry firm, using Canadian materials. It was designed to complement another iconic Canadian royal jewel: the Diamond Maple Leaf Brooch. The bejeweled maple leaf was part of the collection of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who wore it during her first royal tour of Canada in 1939. Notably, Queen Elizabeth II was wearing the maple leaf brooch when she accepted the snowflake brooch gift in 2017.
The newer Canadian royal brooch features diamonds and pale blue sapphires in a snowflake-inspired design. It’s not actually a snowflake, as they feature six-fold symmetry, but the brooch does not. The 48 sapphires set in the white gold brooch are rare examples of the gemstone that were discovered in Canada. The gems, called Canadian beluga sapphires, were part of a cache found on Baffin Island by two brothers, Seemeega and Nowdluk Aqpik, who revealed their find to the public in 2002. Along with the sapphires, the piece features more than 400 diamonds that were mined in northern Canada.
Queen Elizabeth II wore the snowflake brooch in public for a variety of occasions during the last five years of her life. Her first public appearance in the brooch, during a meeting with the King and Queen of the Belgians, sparked some odd speculation. Later, Elizabeth also made a prominent outing in the brooch at a non-winter sporting event: the races at Royal Ascot in June 2019.
Now, the brooch has been immortalized in coin form. Thrillingly, the coin is just the first in a series of brooch-themed pieces planned by the Royal Canadian Mint as part of a “Crown Jewels” series. On their website, they write that the coin depicts “a one-of-a-kind brooch inspired by a snowflake as a representation of the Canadian Arctic.” They add that the brooch’s “likeness is captured on the reverse of this 99.99% pure silver coin, where the rhodium-plated embellishment’s cast elements and royal blue glass stones highlight the beauty and intricacy of the diamond-and-sapphire brooch’s design.”
The silver coin, minted in 2024, features a portrait of King Charles III on the obverse of the piece. The mint notes that the effigy of the King was produced by the Canadian artist Steven Rosati.
As with most collectible coins, the snowflake brooch coin is a limited edition piece. The mint states that 6,500 coins were produced, with the expectation that the mintage would sell out. As far as I can tell, there are still currently coins available for purchase at the price of $164.95 CAN (or around $115 USD at the time of this article’s publication). I’m not a coin collector, but I’m excited to see which brooches are included in this series. Could one of these Canadian royal brooches be up next?
