STRIKING IMPRESSIONS PRINT RUN

I was told by a former V.P. at the Royal Canadian Mint that this sort of glossy book with all the colour and printed on glossy paper would be considered a money-losing proposition. What made the book a possibility is that the Royal Canadian Mint agreed to purchase 2,000 copies, if memory serves me right.

When I was chairing the upcoming 1981 CNA Convention, I asked the Mint what they had to give me to include in the registration kits. About a week later, a large delivery truck pulled up to my driveway with a skid of boxes. I had no idea what it was except that the shipper was the Royal Canadian Mint, Ottawa.

The waybill stated that the boxes contained a total of 500 books "Striking Impressions."

The reason they did such a thing for me is that I was the CNA's liaison to the RCM, a position that I had held well over a decade. They even designed the official Convention medal what turned out to be the most detailed coin or medal they ever produced, creating the dies and striking it. They only charged me for the pure cost of silver.

I intentionally say the Mint charged "me" and not the CNA because the CNA sold the rights to the convention to the Toronto International Coin Fair which I owned (the only time they had turned over their Convention to a private coin show…but it was the largest coin show in Canada at the time).

I visited the people at the Mint regularly, including getting to stick my nose into the minting presses, cockie cutter, blanking machine and everything else that went on, which enabled me to write a biweekly "Error & Varieties" column (I am now at column 353) and two books on errors produced by the RCM that sold out, thanks to the good publicity I received, including from The E-Sylum.

As a matter of fact, I am in the process of writing another book, dealing mainly with the old and new minting processes at the RCM and publishing a number of designs that were submitted by artists but not used on Canadian coins. It will also include the history of some well-known errors such as the 1967 "Diving Goose" dollars and other back-door jobs that originated at the Hull Plant of the RCM, including names of the people behind their distribution.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: SEPTEMBER 25, 2022 : Elizabeth II Coronation Medals: Where Struck? (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n39a09.html)

 

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