April 24, 2014 – On March 24, Canadian literary icon Alice Munro unveiled the Royal Canadian Mint’s new collector coin at the Greater Victoria Public Library. The coin celebrates her tremendous accomplishment of receiving the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The reverse image of this 99.99 per cent pure silver coin was designed by Canadian artist Laurie McGaw and features an ethereal female figure emerging from a pen as a representation of one of the many central characters from Alice Munro’s beloved short stories. © Royal Canadian Mint.
“The Royal Canadian Mint commemorates Canada’s culture, values and heritage and celebrating Alice Munro’s tremendous body of work and receipt of literature’s most prestigious international award is yet another notable chapter in our Corporation’s history,” said Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint. “This coin is a beautiful and meaningful keepsake for readers, writers and collectors alike.”
To honour Alice Munro’s remarkable achievement and to encourage a thriving writing community in Canada, the Royal Canadian Mint is proudly donating $10,000 to the Writers’ Trust of Canada. “In 1986, Alice Munro became the first recipient of an annual Writers’ Trust award in recognition of a Canadian writer’s exceptional body of work,” said Mary Osborne, Executive Director of the Writers’ Trust of Canada. “Nearly three decades later, Ms Munro’s work is lauded throughout the world, and through this generous gift the fruits of her success become an investment in future generations of literary icons. The Writers’ Trust is honoured to receive this donation on behalf of the Canadian writers it will help to support and celebrate.”
The reverse image of this 99.99 per cent pure silver coin was designed by Canadian artist Laurie McGaw and features an ethereal female figure emerging from a pen as a representation of one of the many central characters from Alice Munro’s beloved short stories. An image of a hand is seen resting against an open book, whose pages are inscribed with a passage from Munro’s “The View from Castle Rock”, which reads: “And in one of these houses – I can’t remember whose – a magic doorstop, a big mother-of-pearl seashell that I recognized as a messenger from near and far, because I could hold it to my ear – when nobody was there to stop me – and discover the tremendous pounding of my own blood, and of the sea.” Above it, a laurel branch celebrates Munro’s distinction as the first Canadian woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.
This is the official website of the Royal Canadian Mint.
More about Alice Munro, her works and her personal life in The Guardian.
The New York Times reported on Munro and the Nobel Prize in Literature.
And this website provides a list of links where you can read some of Munro’s short stories online for free.