
We’re finally digging out from a winter storm here in my neck of the woods, but I’ve got one more snowflake on my radar: a sparkling one on a Canadian coin, made to resemble a brooch from Queen Elizabeth II’s collection.

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 Mint, that features Queen Elizabeth II’s Sapphire Jubilee Snowflake Brooch as part of its design.

The brooch was among the last major pieces added to the late Queen’s jewelry collection. It was presented to her in the summer of 2017 by David Johnston, who was then the Governor General of Canada, on behalf of the nation. He offered her the brooch personally during her visit to Canada House in London, timed to celebrate both the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation and Elizabeth II’s Sapphire Jubilee.

The special brooch was produced using Canadian materials by a Saskatchewan-based jewelry firm, Hillberg & Berk. The piece was dreamed up as a companion to 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 prominently during her first royal tour of Canada in 1939. Interestingly, 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 gorgeous pale blue sapphires in a snowflake-inspired design. The scientifically-minded among us will note that it’s not really a snowflake, as they feature six-fold symmetry, and 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 a pair of brothers, Seemeega and Nowdluk Aqpik. They 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.

During the last five years of her life, Queen Elizabeth II wore the snowflake brooch in public for a variety of occasions. Her first public appearance in the brooch, during a meeting with the King and Queen of the Belgians, sparked some seriously odd speculation. Later, Elizabeth also made a prominent outing in the brooch at a decidedly 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?
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.