Canada 20 Dollars Silver Coin 2002 The William Lawrence
Transportation Series
Obverse: Right-facing profile of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by artist Dora de Pédery-Hunt, along with the year and face value.
Lettering: ELIZABETH II D • G • REGINA 2002.
Engraver: Dora de Pédery-Hunt.
Reverse: Sailing ship William D. Lawrence right with hologram over value.
The William D. Lawrence displaced 2,458 tons and measured 262 feet in length - making it the largest ship ever built in the Maritimes! Surprisingly, this huge three-masted square-rigger handled "like a yacht" and reached speeds of 14 knots.
Lettering: CANADA 20 DOLLARS.
Engraver: Bonnie Ross.
Mintage: 35994.
Composition: 92.5% silver, 7.5% copper.
Finish: proof.
Weight: 31.11 g.
Diameter: 38 mm.
Edge: interrupted serrations.
Face value: 20 Canadian Dollars.
Artist: Bonnie Ross, William Woodruff (reverse), Dora de Pédery-Hunt (obverse).
Manufacturer: Royal Canadian Mint.
Transportation Series
Transportation on Land, Sea and Rail Collection
The 2002 Transportation Series is the last issue in a three year series. The series focuses on Canadian innovations in transportation on land, sea, and rail that contributed to our rich Canadian transportation history. Each coin in the series has a $20 face value and features a hologram depicting each form of transportation.
2000
2001
2002
Gray-Dort Model 25-SM D10 Locomotive Sailing ship William D. Lawrence
William D. Lawrence was a full-rigged sailing ship built in Maitland, Nova Scotia, along the Minas Basin and named after her builder, the merchant and politician William Dawson Lawrence (1817–1886).
Construction and career
Built in 1874 at the William D. Lawrence Shipyard in Maitland, she was the largest wooden sailing ship of her day, one of the largest wooden ships ever built and the largest sailing ship ever built in Canada. William Lawrence was a fierce opponent of Canadian Confederation which he predicted would bring ruin to Nova Scotia's flourishing shipbuilding industry. Initially planning to build a smaller vessel, he deliberately increased the size of William D. Lawrence to create a landmark vessel for the province's shipping industry before it declined. The vessel defied critics who claimed that a wooden vessel of its size would be unmanageable and lose money.
After several profitable years, the ship was sold to Norwegian owners in 1883 and renamed Kommander Svend Foyn. She was stranded in the English Channel in 1891 and converted to a barge, later sinking in Dakar, Africa.
Commemorations
In 1930, William D. Lawrence and his great ship were commemorated by the Bank of Nova Scotia, which placed a stone carving of the ship above the door of the head office building in Halifax, Nova Scotia (located on Hollis Street, directly across from Province House). A monument dedicated to Lawrence's ship as a national historic treasure was erected on the grounds of his home in 1967, and his home was opened to the public as a provincial museum site on August 11, 1971. The ship has also been commemorated by the Canada Post with a postage stamp (1975) and the Royal Canadian Mint with a coin (2002).
The ship was the subject of at least three formal ship portraits, one at the Nova Scotia Museum displayed at Lawrence House in Maitland, one at the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management in Halifax and one by Edouard-Marie Adam at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris, France.
The vessel's achievement is commemorated in Maitland by a National Historic Site monument at the restored home of her builder, Lawrence House, part of the Nova Scotia Museum. Maitland celebrates the launch of William D. Lawrence every September at a weekend festival called "Launch Days".