100 Years of History
Told in Gold and Silver, One Coin at a Time.
A Labour of love
The Beaverworks Mint is proud to announce that we are as part of the decade of commemoration leading up to the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Royal Canadian Air Force, will be embarking on a journey to produce world class, 1 Troy Oz. .9999 Fine Silver coins that honour the history and legacy of the RCAF by telling its story through issuing 100 different minted coins. We were unfortunately delayed by 5 years as we had to build our own mint from scratch, but it is our objective to complete this collection before the end of the anniversary of the formation of the RCAF. We began with the Silver Arrow and set the global standard. Then we proceeded with the Spitfire, Hurricane, Hornet, Silver Dart, Spitfire Misprint, Golden Arrow, Arrow metal coin and we plan to complete our collection before the end of the centennial. Please check back soon to check up on our progress!
As we commence with engine restart with our new minting system, we are temporarily pausing accepting any orders for now on anything else but the RCAF Centennial Maples to ensure we can invest all manpower and time exclusively to this unique and time sensitive window of opportunity. However we will resume sales when we feel we are ready. We have no idea as to the demands these two coins will have and want to ensure all resources are allocated towards that project for now. We hope you can understand. However, stay tuned and stay inspired, we will resume with the coins listed below as soon as we feel the time is right. We are a tiny operation and the last thing we want is to get overwhelmed by taking on too much, too soon.
Our objective is to complete the 100 Collection: 100 different coins, celebrating 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force, told through precious metals through the production of the absolutely highest levels of minting quality. Below is the catalogue of our work which was unfortunately delayed due to the fact we had to build a coin minting operation from scratch to ensure we could ensure the highest levels of quality and oversee production schedules. This effort has taken 5 years and an 18000 hour of investment of time and assuming a personal debt in excess of $200 000.00 in order to acquire all the tooling we needed and to acquire all the comprehensive and exceedingly in-depth knowledge required in order to fabricate world class work worthy of the Royal Canadian Air Force. As we get operations re-started, we will ensure that our lovely collectors who have exhibited immense patience will receive their coins. As we bring this immense system online, we will be sequentially restarting production on all coins on back order as soon as possible.
When we started this venture, we began with this coin. We didn’t care how much it cost, we wanted what we wanted. After this was fabricated to our exact standards, we were informed that up until this coin, no other coin in history was ever minted up to this level and by extension set the global precedent in high-end quality. This coin will be available for purchase shortly. Please continue to check back periodically to ensure availability.
We have metal provided to us from the Arrow Program which managed an escape from AVRO prior to the being destroyed. With what little we have, we made a tiny run to share with fellow Canadians. The reverse is laser engraved with a Maple Leaf, Canada word mark and collectors have the option to have their last name engraved. We have currently listed our inventory at zero for now so we can focus on the launch of the Maples. If you are interested in one, please check back very soon as we will have a few up for sale shortly.
Of course this issue is dedicated to those Canadians who fought and paid the ultimate sacrifice in the Battle of Britain, however we also wanted to dedicate this coin to our now late dear friend and aerospace mentor Robert “Bob” Diemert. He stated that with his Hurricane, he was able to fly faster than the CT-114 Jet used by the Snowbirds and was able to nearly reach supersonic speeds. He pioneered the Warbirds industry with the rebuild of his Hawker Hurricane which was used in the famous film “Battle of Britain”. He will be sorely missed for his contributions to Canadian Aerospace Research. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/famed-aviator-remembered-following-death-1.7087959 This coin will be available for purchase shortly. Please continue to check back periodically to ensure availability.
Of course this issue is dedicated to those Canadians who fought and paid the ultimate sacrifice in the Battle of Britain, however we also wanted to dedicate this coin to the assistant to our aerospace mentor Robert “Bob” Diemert, Chris Ball. Mr. Ball pointed out that we used the wrong variant of Spitfire in the Battle of Britain for our issue. We are exceptionally grateful to him for pointing out our error. He and Bob were a Canadian aerospace tag team and will both be sorely missed. We have since given away these misprints to the friends of Mr. Ball after his passing in his memory. This coin is discontinued and sold out and is no longer available.
Mintage: 100.
Dedicated to the memory of this heroic Canadian, Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski, VC. To read more of his act of selfless heroism, click here. This coin will be available for purchase shortly. Please continue to check back periodically to ensure availability.
Dedicated to J.A.D. McCurdy and the Silver Dart. McCurdy was the first man in the British Empire to fly and was one of the co-founders of the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1924. This coin will be available for purchase shortly. Please continue to check back periodically to ensure availability.
Dedicated to the Supermarine Spitfire and those who bravely flew her in battle. This coin will be available for purchase shortly. Please continue to check back periodically to ensure availability.
Dedicated to the CF-188 Hornet and those who have and continue to fly her into history. This coin will be available for purchase shortly. Please continue to check back periodically to ensure availability.
If you are interested in learning more about the immensely difficult journey I have had to take in order to do this, please click here and read an unvarnished look into my journey I had to take.
The Black Beaver
They tried to destroy our dream, now its our turn to shine!
When I started this, all I wanted to do was to make a beautiful collection of stunning coins. I was expecting that I would have been able to utilise subcontractors in order to assist me. I realised that would not be possible given how our work clearly was too good as evidenced by the fact with our first issue of the Silver Arrow, it ended up setting the global precedent in quality. It turned heads, caught the attention of our competition and well, shortly after we started posting pictures of the Golden Arrow, we had our ability to rely on our subcontractor terminated. I looked all over North America for a suitable replacement, but in every single case, for one reason or another, I was not able to rely upon their scheduling, expertise or something else. I recall exactly where I was when I said “Well, I guess I will just have to build a mint from scratch in order to keep my word.”
I have drawn upon the experience I had with another intensive, multi-year project which was a book I published, a military anthology dedicated to the first four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. If you would like to learn more about that, here is the link to the project. It was this project that taught me to never break faith and was subsequently blessed with the dream of an experience of sending the flag of the Third Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry into orbit on STS-115/12A and as a result, was made an Honourary Member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infranty, a distinction only given to only 16 Canadians in history as I was informed.. If it was not for that experience and the lessons I learned from that, I don’t know if I would have had what it took to get here. Only because of that experience, I was absolutely certain that this moment would come and only because of my certainty and the emphasis I place upon honouring those who are the guarantors of my freedom of expression, was I able to secure the financial backing needed in order to build this mint. This work is an expression of that commitment to that ethos and designed to literally last thousands of years, eternally echoing that sentiment through the ages.
Politics is downstream from culture, art is upstream from culture and I am the artist whose medium of expression is Canada. Full stop. Every coin I strike and ship is my way to refute those who stood in opposition to this and to live the old adage of….the best form of revenge is success. Absolutely none of this has been easy. Its unforgiving, precise, expensive, hyper detailed work and for a highly impatient artist, moving as fast as I do, its taken 5 years to get to this restart. I am immensely honoured and grateful to have been the recipient of all the trust and faith others have placed in me during these years and was honoured to provide the first prototype Centennial Silver Maple to the Commanding General of the Royal Canadian Air Force, LGen Eric “Slice” Kenny. As a one man operation for now, with the launch of the RCAF Centennial Maples and hopefully with a receptive market of like minded Canadians, it is my goal to build Beaverworks Mint into a powerhouse. There is no doubts now. Thank you for reading this and taking an interest in this dream of mine and we look forward to having you as one of our absolutely cherished collectors.
-Joseph Green B.FA
We Did It Canada!
We gave our word to Canada and we are keeping it
I can’t believe that I actually built a complete minting operation from scratch. Like who does that? 5 years….18000 hours, massive personal debt. My word is my bond and I will never break faith with those who serve this nation. Ever. The sacrifices I have had to endure are absolutely insignificant to the hardships of some wounded Veterans who have suffered immense hardship and neglect from their service. We as a nation owe them better. If I can’t endure the hardships that I have, given the serious injuries they have had to endure and demoralising conduct by the political class, then I wouldn’t be a very solid Canadian and certainly not someone who identifies to my core of my soul, as an Honourary Member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. At no point will I ever allow myself nor this operation to do anything inappropriate, immoral, unethical or unlawful. If anything, I aim to set a higher benchmark as to how to do it right if given the opportunity. Life is short and I want my legacy of work to stand for something of meaning, honour, integrity and the core characteristics of what made this country the best place in the world. Full stop, no exceptions. I look forward to the day when I can live like a normal human again. “Whatever it takes!”…anything is possible, may this serve as a testament to that ethos. You can achieve anything as long as you commit to the task, never give up, never stop, learn how to love getting hit and beaten down and keep getting up. Eventually you will get there. One step at a time, always advancing forward.