# 1451 - Canadian Wildlife - Part 14

Today we will continue the series called "Canadian Wildlife".

The Royal Canadian Mint is known by its high quality work and the enormous number of commemorative coins issued each year. Among these commemoratives we find many, individual or in series, under the theme "wildlife".

Canada, with its vast lands and seas, is the home of a varied fauna and that will be showed in this series.

I will try to post land animals, sea animals and birds, in that order.

The fourteenth is a 1998 CAD $.50 "Beluga Whale".

In 1995 the Royal Canadian Mint decided to create the "Discovering Nature" series. It would last six years, with four $.50 coins minted each year. It would be the first sterling silver (92.5%) fifty cents to be issued since 1919.

Each coins weights 9.3g with frosted relief on a brilliant background. The mintage was 33,327 units. The issue price was CAD $19.95.

The reverse shows the "Beluga Whale" (Delphinapterus leucas). The little white whale grows to only 4 or 5 meters in length and unlike most whales, it can turn its head to peer around it. Sailors of old nicknamed the beluga "Sea Canary" because of the enquiring chirps and whistles it emits.

It was designed by Pierre Leduc and engraved by Cosme Saffioti.

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