2015 - $20 - 1 oz. Fine Silver Coin with Jade Insert – Canadian Icons: Polar Bear

# B928

Stock: 1

~~$129.95~~ $119.95

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Canadian Icons: Polar Bear

Renowned for its strength and its ability to thrive in a harsh climate, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) has become one of the most recognised icons of the Canadian North. This “King of the Arctic” is North America's largest land carnivore and is easily identified by its thick, white fur that keeps it warm as it hunts for seals along the sea ice. With a unique jade insert added to this fine silver coin, the Royal Canadian Mint proudly celebrates this animal of the ice, and the ecosystem it inhabits.

For thousands of years, the beauty of jade has captivated people—from ancient China and the pre-Columbian New World, to today's collectors and jewelry makers. Treasured by the Chinese who associate it with longevity, purity and the soul, jade has been used as a good luck and protection stone in the ancient art of Feng Shui, while in gemstone therapy, it is said to bring happiness and harmony while stimulating agility and creativity.

The jade insert on this coin's reverse features Canadian nephrite jade that was mined in British Columbia, and is prized for its resilience and mirror-like finish once polished. By some accounts, Chinese settlers who were hunting for gold along B.C.'s Fraser River and the Dewdney Trail were the first to identify jade deposits there in 1886; in the 1930s, European miners also found large boulders from the province's gold mines. But it wouldn't be until the mid-20th century that commercial mining of jade was established in B.C., which has since become one of the world's top jade producers.

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