ORILLIA MUSEUM OF ART & HISTORY
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Pull some change out of your pocket or your purse and look at the coin of the realm. You have about 95% chance of inspecting the artistic creation of an Orillian designer.
For nearly a century, there have been two Orillians who have had the lion's share of coin design for the Royal Canadian Mint: Emanuel Hahn and Tony Bianco.
Join your friends at the 2019 Carmichael Art History Lecture at The Orillia Museum of Art & History on May 8 at 7:30 p.m. to learn the story of these two master coin artists.
It is almost the perfect interface of history and art - especially given the legacy of coins in western society. Seeing the artist renderings of coins old and new on the 'tail' always generates higher interest than the head - an effigy of the monarch.
In memory of Qennefer Hahn Browne, the mastermind who initiated the Carmichael Art History lecture over 10 years ago, her husband, retired architect Robert Browne will show a film of Qennefer's father, Emanuel Hahn.
The film was produced by the National Film Board years ago and was recently uncovered within numismatic circles. Hahn's contributions to both coin and stamp design for the country between the wars emphasize the newfound strength of nationhood recognized from the losses endured during World War I. Hahn's fame endures with the most common coins in pockets of Canadians.
Modern coin design will be the focus of artist Tony Bianco, who has been designing coins for Canada for the last quarter century. His coins are designed with much more interpretive and artistic flourish than permitted in previous decades.
This is due to the contemporary efforts of the Royal Canadian Mint to generate aesthetic and collector interest - not just in standard issue, but also commemorative and keepsake coins.
When the Royal Canadian Mint began minting coins in 1908, collectability and rarity would have been due to pressing size and flaws, and today’s coins are no different except for the extra measure of artistic creation.
Has Bianco been into the vaults of the Mint to see the bars of pure silver used to press out his latest $5 collector coin?
Every time you flip a coin for 'heads or tails' at the golf course, trade in your beer bottle for your deposit return, or give coins to the Cancer Society and Remembrance Day box for your daffodil or poppy, you will recognize the faces of the Orillians that made numismatic history by designing Canada’s most famous tails!
Don't miss the 'Art of Money'. Tickets can be purchased for $15 at OMAH, located at 30 Peter St. S. in Orillia. Credit cards are accepted.
Please call OMAH 705-326-2159 for further details.
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