First, I would like to extend a most sincere, personal and professional thank you to anyone who has taken time out of their lives and day to read this. It is my hope that whomever you are, may it serve to inspire you in the pursuit of your dreams.

For those who are unaware of what has happened in our journey, please allow me to explain.

Back in the summer of 2019, we were operating out of a commercial studio in an industrial part of east Edmonton. 4 years was spent renovating and building the space out that would work for our needs. Our landlord, unbeknowst to us, was headed towards a commercial foreclosure, which unlike a residential foreclosure, means that when the bank comes in, they seize everything. With less than 2 weeks notice, we had to find a new space to function out of. After years of tireless work, energy, hope and drive to build the space we wanted, this unforeseen event, really screwed up our ability to function.

–With about 2 weeks notice, and our landlord going into foreclosure, everything needed to be urgently packed up and moved out of our studio.

-With all moves, one never appreciates just how much stuff, especially when you are running a business.

-You can see the glass enclosure made from patio doors harvested from a large apartment renovation. Everything, absolutely everything had to be urgently packed and moved out.

With very little time, measured in minutes, or so it felt, we had no other choice, but to move our operations into the unheated garage of the sister of our leader, Joseph Green. That meant that the garage and its contents needed to be moved out, which required a new shed to be built prior to moving in all of our tooling, gear and inventory. So, a shed was built to house the displaced items from the garage and we commenced the move.

–Thanks to my big sister and her husband and family, they let me move everything into their garage. However, there was so much stuff that a young family with 3 kids has and so, all this needed to be moved out. However, they had no where to put it…so I had to build a shed to house it.

-Now that the shed was built and all the contents from the garage were moved in, I had to begin moving the studio contents into the garage.

-With floorspace area at a premium, I had to mount a 600lb CNC mill to the wall in order to use it. Moving this myself was really painful.

After this extreme event occurred, and all of our tooling was extracted, moving from a space with approximately 900ft2, into a space half the size, we still retained our inherent optimism for our project to honour the Royal Canadian Air Force by completing our vision of producing 100 coins to celebrate 100 years of the formation of the RCAF, culminating in 2024. Then, as we were contending with the extreme chaos a move yields, and after we began publishing pictures of our first Gold Issue dedicated to the Avro Arrow, the only 2.01 Troy Oz Gold Coins ever minted, with select platinum plate, serialised edge markings and full colour printing, our sub-contractor informed us, that they were no longer going to provide us with the coins we could sell, and thereby, severing our lifeline. It was at this point, we had another collector interested in purchasing a coin. There are no words with enough gravity and meaning to convey just how rough, difficult and hard of a pill that was to swallow. We came to the understanding that calls were made, and given how our work when we started, literally set the global standard of excellence in minting, its easy to appreciate that we may have been threatening to our competition.

-Golden Arrow RL-201. The first 2.01 Troy Oz. Find Gold coin ever minted. Once we started posting pictures of our first Gold issue, that’s when the rug was pulled out from under us.

-This chapter felt very much like we were wandering the cold, desolate and isolated landscape of an impossible dream.

-Here is a photo of the garage after years of work, building a floor, walls, bedroom, a mount for the piston which is approximately 1000lbs, which fell a number of times…

So there we were, in a small garage, with our dreams in tatters, our personal lives in chaos and our means to earn a livelihood and keep our promise and word of honour to the RCAF and the Canadian Forces as a whole, was severed. There is nothing like the experience of waking up inside a garage, your life in complete chaos, then having your dreams ripped from you and all the potential that comes with it.

Friends abandon you, family mocks and ridicules you and your character is simply “Tolerated”. Given the immense and unforeseen hardships, we still had the packaging for the Golden Arrow to complete. When we started this and of course we conveyed this to our truly, truly outstanding and utterly amazing collectors, we told them that the packaging has no ETA, it gets done when it gets done, we will move as fast as humanly possible, but it has to be perfect, otherwise we won’t ship. Given how our packaging has been plagiarised in the past, we took the position where we would not post any pictures telegraphing what our packaging would look like, how it would function etc. As we worked on that, while we also searched for a suitable replacement subcontracting mint we could work with, we realised just how tiny of a community this industry is. We spoke with a number of prospects and realised that for one reason or another, they were just not up to the task, be it metal purity, scheduling or otherwise, we found ourselves in a very difficult position. It was at this point, our leader realised that we didn’t have any other choice, but to literally build a mint from scratch. Now please keep something in mind. Our leader, Joseph Green is a designer, and would have been absolutely happy to have developed a relationship with other mints, completed the collection and most likely at the end of the 100 collection, moved on. However, in light of having to make the decision to take on the truly monumental task of building a mint from scratch, has changed that. As he pushed forward, blowing router after router in the pursuit of the packaging for the Golden Arrow, he was offered another small loan in order to begin the process of building our first press. We would like to express our deepest heart felt gratitude to the family of the late Major General Lionel Bourgeois for assisting with this loan which allowed us to build the press and purchase more tools for the packaging. As our gesture of thanks, we dedicated this press to his memory.

-It took about 3 months to source the steel plate, get it cut, then the protective scale on the steel was ground off, then polished to a mirror finish. If we were expected to produce world class coins, then the press must look the part. Once it was finished, we then laser engraved the first side dedicated to the RCAF, then the other side dedicated to those we lost at Vimy Ridge. During this point, our laser failed and it took a couple of months for a replacement to be shipped.

-Here is another example of made in China inferior workmanship. This is the Rigid hybrid table saw. We purchased one, the motor failed, we thought it may be a faulty unit, so we replaced it with a second identical unit, and the same thing happened. Never again. We ended up using a saw manufactured in the 1950s because its superior to anything made in China. We had to rip apart our maple hardwood table in order to remove it. Ugh…never again.

-Here my amazing cousin Darren drove into the city from his farm with his skid steer to lift out my press to take it to an oilfield repair shop in Nisku. They fixed it right, welded it correctly and now the press is perfect. It cost more to repair it than the purchase price.

When Joseph Green originally started with the precedent setting Silver Arrow coin, he drained all of his savings, maxed out his credit cards and personal lines of credit in order to produce the first batch of coins. Now, after a successful run of selling our coins, established a track record, that attracted some small amount of investors which was not enough to buy a complete minting system, but enough for us to begin this journey. Now keep in mind, the minting world is replete with trade secrecy, no one divulges anything and no one wants to help, even finding someone who can guide you is an exercise of extreme frustration, resulting in plenty of failed attempts. When the decision was made, we knew we needed a coin press. We had no idea what the terminology is or was, or even how to begin. We just knew we needed a hydraulic press. So with the small backing we had, we purchased a 400T hydraulic piston from China, purchased some 2″ thick mild steel plate locally, had it cut to fit the square flange on the piston and thus began our journey. We then laser engraved it with all the current squadron crests of the RCAF, and all the squadrons of the Air Cadets, the laser failed which incurred a delay of 2 months. Then when the time came to hook up and test the hydraulic piston, the piston leaked and given the amount of work invested into it, if the leak was not sealed, we were prepared to grind off all the engravings as we would not have tolerated a leaky press with the markings of the RCAF and Vimy Ridge. No way, no how. In order to fix it, they sent us a new one which did not fit, it was jammed in, so we had to use our engine hoist, mount it horizontal and use a 6 foot long steel square tube a large wrench to unbind it, and all to lathe of 0.1mm. Luckily we were able to accomplish this. Then after we tested it, everything seemed to be functioning okay, but one day, as we ran another test, the square flange the steel piston was screwed into then welded onto, bent and started to rip off its mount. The company in China used faulty steel that was not adequate to the task. Over the course of this journey, with all the printers, laser engravers, pistons and more we purchased from China, in almost every single case, every single item we purchased failed resulting in the need to conduct expensive repairs, incurring time delays which were beyond unreasonable, months of time was lost trying to repair items that should not have failed and the level of frustration and hardship was off the charts.

-“Whatever it takes…whatever it takes…” There is nothing as humbling and humiliating as living in an unheated garage, appearing like a madman artist to those who have no idea, but when you make a promise to Canada and those who serve, you keep that word of honour as they do with you.

So between pivoting between getting the press issue addressed and operational, trying to figure out the basics like a coin collar, the steel donut which contains the metal while under compression, Green would also be working on other aspects, like the laser. When the laser was purchased, the sales lady had absolutely no clue as to how to operate it, it came with no settings, nor any manual, just some basic, unprofessional videos taken from a cell phone which was supposed to teach how to use it. When the laser was awaiting repairs, Green would pivot over to the CNC mill which itself was another made in China tool with its own set of major problems. So much so, he gave it the name “Pai Mai”, the Kung-Fu master featured in the film Kill Bill.

-Pai-Mai, the CNC of pure misery, our brand new UV wall printer failed on day one and a failed attempt at milling 6061 aluminium for our packaging.

Its difficult to convey just how many elements have gone into building a mint from scratch. Over the course of this journey, we have only had the opportunity to speak with a single individual who works in this industry to be able to ask questions to technical problems. This person works in the manufacturing of tooling for the minting industry and even then, they refused to sell us a coin press insert for our press citing that it was not professionally made. No matter what we did, it was clear, the industry would not welcome us, help us, support us, our vision, our dream and in effect the little guy. Green credits the work he accomplished years earlier of being able to arrange a flag of the Third Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and the lessons learned from that experience which enabled him to keep driving forward against all obstacles.

-Here is the studio in the garage in a clean state which took an incredibly long time to get to.

–Here is an effort to build a new and larger CNC mill out of scrap steel and components from our old CNC. We dismantled the old one because of a critical flaw in the bearing systems and so we attempted to integrate into our primary work table a fully operational CNC mill, however the top gantry was not perfectly square and so we eventually dismantled it. But all the control systems worked and we learned so much from this failure.

-Here is another failure in casting the crest in pewter, but we had a glimmer of hope with the maple leaf and how it will appear with a stunning red powder coat.

There can be no way anyone can appreciate the immense hardship, struggle and pain that this chapter has forced Green to endure. In July of 2022, Green exhausted his resources, in debt, lines of credit maxed, credit cards maxed and literally scrounging for bottles to get enough to buy a pack of smokes, when he had a long discussion with himself and realised that he simply could not continue. Every dollar acquired went into this effort and keeping him alive while in the pursuit. With the immense pressure of debtors and zero income, Green made the call on 31 July and began to accept that he would have to suspend, potentially indefinitely all of his work and head to the oil patch where he has worked previously as a trucker and began to mentally prepare himself for it. It was then his friend and colleague, a lovely lady named Vicky called him up and said she deposited $1000 into his account from some sales and that gave him life. It was a remarkable moment as that was the anniversary of his mothers death and on August 4th, the birthday of his late mother, she deposited a loan of $25k into Beaverworks in order to begin purchasing more tooling and said “There ya go Laddy!” From there, the UV wall printer was purchased, along with other tooling to keep going. For that to happen on those particular days was indeed very heart warming.

-Just when you think things could not get any more difficult and hard, a couple days after the birthday of Green, his father passed away unexpectedly and he was the one who found him. Green’s father, Joseph M. Green P.Eng, M.Eng E.E. and retired RCAF was an instrumental part of this dream as not only was he exceptionally supportive, he was the one who took care of the accounting. He will be sorely missed for the outstanding support he provided. Without him, we would not be here. Thanks Dad.

As time went on and Green kept going forward, Vicky agreed to provide another loan so we could stop trying to make what we have worked and just buy a brand new minting system. Everything was proceeding as agreed, then out of the blue, Green’s father passed away and he was the one who found him. Given how Green’s father was the accounting guru and was helping the Legion with their accounting to which Vicky was a member of, when he passed away, it served to disrupt and delay that potential loan. The darkest moments of this journey was felt in the cold winter of November, in an unheated garage, after Green’s father passed away. In the following days, weeks and months that followed, he kept pressing forward for what he could, Vicky went understandably silent without the guidance of his father to assure her and once again, Green felt the vacuum of no funds to keep going. It was during this chapter where he had a life changing moment which solidified his faith, which in turn, kept him driving forward. It is a truly strange thing to know that the money will arrive, when you absolutely need it, you absolutely trust it, you keep going and when the funds are needed, they appear. This project now became the sole mission for Green. With all of his personal furniture given away to family to make room to accommodate tooling, especially in a tiny space, his sole sanctuary is his bed, with literally years invested, massive debts assumed in order to push forward with learning and teaching himself how to mint, embroider, properly print, cast metal and more, out of the blue, Vicky came to the rescue and called him up and apologised for the delay and said that she was ready to commence with the loan. There is something truly bizarre about having to borrow bus fare in order to go and pick up a cheque for $130500.00. That was a day Green shall never, ever forget as it was her which enabled him to bypass all the hardships and turmoil of having to endure having to make due with tools that were not properly made for minting and provide him with the opportunity to purchase proper and calibrated tooling.

-The most amazing supporter and partner one could ever ask for. Vicky Torrie was the wonderful lady who kept people informed of the progress work and also sold our materials at Legion markets. She was an amazing lady and she sadly passed away a day before the first RCAF Silver Maple prototypes were struck. Her passing left an unfillable hole in our lives.

Enter My Cousin/Brother Darren!…AKA “Jim”.

-Green’s cousin Darren and his amazing wife Tammy! Canadian Farmers are the backbone of this nation.

There is only one single man in this world who works harder and longer than Green and its this guy: Green’s cousin/brother Darren.

For those who don’t know Green, he is the son of an award winning pianist and artist mother who passed away from breast cancer when he was 8 and son of a former fighter pilot who won the Tudhope Flying trophy as the best Pilot in Canada, Masters Level Electrical Professional Engineer. Literally the finest examples of the most extreme opposites.

From the early age of 7, until he became an adult, cancer and death ripped through his family and has attended more funerals than he can count. Losing ones mother at such an early age has the effect of forcing the child to advance beyond their years, those who have lived through it, understand it. Losing so many beloved family members, sometimes feels like being advanced centuries. Being the son of two radically opposite worlds, arts and engineering, then reconciling them into a singular entity, has been a blessing and a curse. When one is an artist, absolute emphasis is placed upon creative expression. When one is an engineer, emphasis is placed upon the extreme discipline of methodical and incremental methods rooted in well understood scientific principles. Seldom do the worlds merge. Growing up, to say he was misunderstood as many artists are, is a profound understatement. After completing a year of engineering, he realised it was not his path at that point in his life. Green felt as though he needed to honour his mother and after years of the journey of self discovery, found himself at Emily Carr University where he found kindred souls and through the pursuit of 3D visualisation and painting, found and fused the extreme discipline within 3D that exists within engineering and the free flowing expression within painting. Through this process, his cousin Darren, born into a very successful family farming operation, which by all accounts, farms own the family due to their heavy and persistent obligations to maintain farms, cattle, crops and life in general, he’s been there in his family orbit. As a child, Green spent many years on the farm, helping with chores, helping wherever he could and was taught how to build, repair, fix many things, but more importantly, learned how to keep the mind open into learning how to fix and build equipment.

-2023 harvest. Green’s cousin and their farming operation is on a whole different level. They are constantly moving forward, constantly working, pivoting between planting, looking after some of their 250-300 head of the finest Alberta Beef Cattle ever raised…seriously, we encourage everyone to buy direct from farmers for fresh meat. Oh wow…

-When you are cramped into a tiny unheated garage, give up all your comforts of life in what seems like an ever shrinking space, then someone like Green’s cousin comes riding in like a white horse and let him set up shop within his ecosystem, that simple gesture of kindness is something we shall cherish forever. They have so many tools, machines, tractors, barns, vehicles and more and its just mind boggling to see such an advanced operation like this function. Anyone who thinks that running a farm is a game of idiot simpletons, they are the idiot simpletons. Farming today is a fusion of so many different areas of expertise, real time situational awareness, you need to be an amateur vet, mechanic, electrician, heavy duty mechanic, underpinned by a hard working mentality of going so hard, so incredibly hard, that there is only one man who  outworks Green, and that is his cousin Darren.

Darren has always been supportive of Beaverworks and our dreams and when he saw that things were about to become serious with the loan we needed to purchase the minting system, he offered us one of his farm garages, allowed us to renovate it to our needs and differed rent until we can start striking coins and restore cash flow. The opportunity to finally build a space out that was large enough to not only accommodate the tooling, but to provide us the room to expand out, build large tables to support this venture and live here, has been the singular thing that has enabled us to do this.

-When the time came to pick up the shipment of the minting system, Green’s cousin was like “We’ll grab our flatbed and pick it up!”….ahhh he makes it sound so simple. If you don’t have a flatbed, nor the heavy duty truck to haul it, its more complicated than you think as he saved us literally thousands in fees to hire the equipment to move and unload the equipment into the studio.

-“Yeah, I’ll rent my buddies forklift for like a hundred bucks!” With his smaller skid steer forks, one of them was bent and we were able to straiten it in less than 10 seconds with our 400T press. It was one of the very few times we were able to use that press and it may not seem like much, but for us, it was something we were so happy to be able to do for him. Forks carry thousands of pounds and when one is angled down, it produces a safety hazard and we ware very happy to be able to remove that bend. Anyway, here he is, using his buddies forklift to just turn key this for us. Darren is a beloved member of this community and we are truly humbled and honoured to be part of his family and we hope when fully operational, we can make him feel the same.

When we started the process to move in and start renovating, we had to move quite a bit of materials and tools Darren located here. He was in the process of selling his solar powered watering tanks for cattle business, he started and partnered with his sister and her family and shortly after the renovation process begun, the husband of Darren’s sister and Green’s cousin was tragically killed in a collision at an intersection when he collided with an unseen and very large farming machine. Todd was his name and he was a lovely man and leaves behind two amazing children and his amazing wife and Green’s cousin Shelly. That was a difficult period. As we pressed on and started to bisect the garage in half lengthwise and built the 17 foot tall wall, Green was descending from a ladder connected to an 8 foot, make shift platform he built to enable him to work high up, slipped and fell onto the platform, then fell 8 feet onto a concrete floor and the old rickety ladder broke his fall thankfully as he landed on his hip. Given the time constraints and pressure he was under to get this finished, and being nearly unable to walk, he only allowed himself a single day to rest which was not long enough, but kept pressing forward. Through this, he would receive positive messages from Vicky encouraging him and that is something we shall dearly miss.

-Here is the beginning of the new studio. We had to move and clear everything out so we could begin to build a new wall.

-It may not look like it, but this is a very tall garage and the wall is approximately 17 feet tall and not very easy to build and accurately position and hold securely the wall to a steel frame.

-Since we had much more powerful lighting, Green moved the current lighting of the suspended lights and doubled them on on the left side and then added ours, then framed, applied the OSB under layer then drywall on a 8’x8’x8′ temporary platform.

-Here is an image of Green 2 days after falling onto the platform, then falling 8 feet onto the concrete floor. He could barely walk for a week, but only took a single day off to recover because of the pressing need to finish this stage.

-None of this was easy, at all. But the wall is solid and true and doesn’t flex. IT’S SOLID!!!! lol. Built by Beavers. 🙂

-The wall is complete, with an OSB layer and drywall so we can hang anything anywhere without fear thinking that the drywall will fail.

-After the unexpectedly expensive repair to our 400T press was completed, a Maple Hardwood table was built for it. This picture was taken before the press was more properly aligned by moving it a few inches to the left.

-The last major thing to move was the shop table Gargantua. After it was unloaded, it sat too high with caster wheels installed, then it needed to have 8″ trimmed off the height…moving this, then rotating a 1000lbs+ maple table took the better part of a day.

-After countless hours, the space was completed, then the moving of all the gear, tooling, embroidery machine paintings and more took place, over many, many loads.

-Here is the primary workstation where all the main digital work is done. We also have a projector set up to display on the wall.

After Green built the wall, we wanted to ensure that the space would reflect the vision of producing world class work out of and have the ability to hang his beloved paintings he had in storage outside of his sisters garage, which many of them were damaged. In order to do that, and to properly light the space, he had to place 75 sheets of OSB on all the walls, including the steel walls to act as a backing for the eventual drywall which he layered on top, then applied the tape and mud, then painted and this was after he wired the ceiling up with very bright LED grow lights which most accurately have a high CRI or Colour Range Index value close to sunlight. Being able to work under bright, but warm daylight is so important for studios or shops, we cannot underscore this enough. As time went on, we used our new and repaired UV Wall Printer to print images we made which displayed images of RCAF and Green’s own personal history. With many, many failures, he eventually finished that. With long shelves with outlets positioned every 8 feet or so, each connected to their own breaker, the space and its functionality really began to shape up. The minting system took longer to make, took 2 months to sail here, then once arrived, he had to arrange for transport, then once here, Green’s cousin helped us immensely by transporting all the gear on his flatbed trailer to this location, then rented a massive forklift from his buddy to move them inside. These are not small tools, nor light, nor easy to move. In one shift, Green spent 8 hours using a 9 foot maple 2×4 he wedged under one corner to incrementally move the large press a half an inch at a time into its eventual final position.

-Here is the wrapped in steel cladding, the 300T coining press. Once it arrived, and only after positioned into their final place, only then could the 3 phase industrial power be hooked up.

Once everything was installed, Green’s cousin introduced him to a generator supplier located in town and he has been immensely helpful and also has differed rental fees until we get striking.

–

So thanks to Green’s cousin, he arranged for an industrial 3 phase generator with a 450V output from a local oilfield generator supply shop. www.Latmann.com When this generator showed up, the driver was amazing. You could tell he’s done this like thousands of times and laid it down ridiculously fast and precisely. In order to slide that generator off the deck of the trailer, you have to build up momentum in order to get it to slide off, by accelerating then hitting the brakes and then its caught by the chain. He was throwing this beautiful generator around with such grace, it was as though we were watching an oilfield ballet. Buddy was good…really good at his job and exceptionally modest. 

When Green struck the first 12 RCAF Prototype Silver Maples, it was the owner of the Generator Shop who was presented a coin to first, enroute to drop off the ones dedicated to the presentation to LGen Kenny, head of the RCAF. Green walked in, shook his hand, said to him, “I am about to say something to you that you have not heard and will never hear again. I am presenting you this coin as the first recipient of the RCAF Silver Maple as my small way of saying thank you. You are receiving your coin before the Commanding General of the Entire Royal Canadian Air Force.” Well needless to say, he was moved and immensely grateful. We wanted him to know how important he has been and how grateful we are through this small gift, which required an immense effort to get to just this point. We ended up presenting coins to Green’s family, our backers and a special lady named Pam, whose dedicated faith, support, selfless kindness, love and more, helped Green in so many countless ways.

-One day, the motor in Green’s SUV developed a fatal knock and it eventually blew. Green told his cousin this and given how we stretched the loan funds as far as humanly possible, it left no money for any repairs in the budget, nor really anything else. Green was contemplating teaching himself how to remove an engine in order to get to the piston push rods, but given everything, that would have been beyond what he was comfortable to contend with. So…Green’s cousin Darren contacted his cousin Rob, another lovely guy who Green has known his whole life, they both call each other “Jim”, yeah its a weird and funny thing, Rob or “Jim” is Darren’s or “Jim’s” big brother/cousin. They refer to Green as Cousin Bruno Kabinski! So, Jim spoke to Jim to get Bruno a free SUV pictured above to replace the old SUV with the blown motor. It didn’t cost Green anything other than agreeing to clean Darren’s or Jim’s garage shop.

Moving the studio to small town Alberta, where hard work, good people, selfless neighbours who help others out, is still the norm is a lovely community to set this operation up in. Every day, as we work in this studio, having to go through the process of building this space, all of it, from design to fabrication, wiring it up, hiring an electrician to install the panel for the 3 phase power, a very large and unexpected bill Green’s cousin has graciously covered until we get striking and cash flow positive, installing the add on card for our laser engraver, with no instructions, fixing printers, embroidery machines and more, just to get moving forward…when we say, all day, every day, dedicated to bringing this effort up, requiring some 18000 hours to get here, we mean it. And this is after years of work already invested. There are no words of love, gratitude and genuine awe we have for those who have stepped up and helped us get here.

-As a prolific artist, being able hang paintings up on a massive wall has been a blessing for Green as this is simply nice to see paintings hanging up on walls, where they belong, instead of beside a garage, outside and wrapped in plastic.

-Here is the finished space with all the tooling connected, its all cleaned, organised and it took over a year of solid, beyond full time work to finish this space.

-Here is our blanking mill, then roller mill, then 300 T press and on the left is our 400T built from scratch.

–Here is an example as to why we use a projector. We display an HD footage from our digital microscope onto the wall so we can inspect all dies, any imperfections or coins on a screen 22′ wide.

We have gone some 200K in debt in order to build this Mint. Green gave up all the comforts of life except his bed, he lives and work out of a garage without a kitchen or bathroom and doesn’t mind, because its about keeping our word of honour to the RCAF, this country, our backers and above all, to himself. When Green started this, he made a commitment, “I will do whatever it takes, endure whatever comes my way and I will do this. I will not accept any Plan B and I will make Plan A work.” To say it has been a persistent, multi-year struggle is an understatement. Working in isolation, slowly chipping away at it has been his sole focus and against all the odds, to be able to have serial number 1 of the prototype silver maple be presented to the head General of the entire Royal Canadian Air Force, has been the absolute highest form of recognition possible. The only other period of Green’s life which parallels this event, was when the Canadian Space Agency took the flag Third Battalion PPCLI presented to Green, which flew over our base in Kandahar, into orbit.

The website has not been updated for a number of years because literally, we had absolutely no time at all to allocate to it because we have been focused on the building of the system. If we have no way to fabricate coins, if it is a choice between investing the precious time in order to build the system to fabricate coins or spend the time on the business plan, accounting or other administrative elements which are extremely vital, we will always choose the physical because without that, no matter how amazing the paperwork is, its ultimately useless. Now that we are here, this website is now being updated and we have almost closed the loop so to speak. We look forward to having a completely automated, accurate, back end accounting system which interfaces with our accounting leger and build something Green’s father, who was our accountant would be proud of. All of this, is an overwhelming amount of work for one single individual to accomplish. When you consider, just in the fabrication end alone, there is approximately 15 dialed in professionals who touch that coin within the production pipeline and Green had to learn all of those very advanced skills, with no help, guidance or otherwise, adversarial opposition, and to arrive here, to say God blessed us through meeting the better angels of our nature, is an understatement. Someday, Green looks forward to living in a house, showering under an actual shower head instead of under a heated 15L bottle of water poured over his head in a garage, cooking a meal for friends in his own kitchen, is a dream he looks forward to experiencing again. This has been the most difficult process of his life to endure. People have ordered coins that still have yet to be shipped, and now have been waiting years for them. We shall soon be once again underway and shall at last complete those orders. We shall not break faith and we are beyond grateful for our collectors understanding and patience. Its not easy to share the private details of the hardships required in order to endure, but we are exceptionally proud of them. If you have a dream, regardless of how insane, unrealistic or otherwise it may sound, go for it. We support your dream and spirit. Above all, you should always support the dreams others have, regardless of anything, because ultimately they will learn, if they have the discipline and drive, the barriers built in and character is built when one either faces them head on and overcomes them, or they collapse at the daunting notion of how. When you don’t have a choice, you must at all costs overcome, or your soul dies, is where we were at. We did, we shall and will persist into the future and only when we are able to build our airplane, fly it, will Green allow himself the luxury of pivoting over to painting and once again, enjoy relishing in the love of it as his mother did. At the end of the day, regardless of if they succeed or not, the real question is, did you support them?

This is about as honest as it gets. Green suffered hard for this. Endured the hardest of all things, emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually and it is within those extreme temperatures where the fragments of one’s soul are melted and fused into a single blade and the grind of life, sharpens its edge allowing you to slice thought these barriers with ease, when it would strangle others.

-I’m a hurtin’ Beaver.

We want to leave behind an honest legacy of work all Canadians can be proud of. Without a doubt, we are the black beaver of the minting industry, but this beaver won’t ever compromise, will continue in the quest, to always do it right, do the very best possible, never compromise nor ever break faith. Being able to think differently may serve to disrupt some or many, but its our deep nature found within, regardless of how expression, verbal or otherwise, is respected which is paramount. We may be the poster child for being dismissed by others, but to those who face similar struggles, hear this….dismissal is the fuel, rejection is the exhaust ports, passion is the igniter and dedicated discipline in the direction of refining your craft, regardless of whatever that craft may be, is your fuel tank capacity. Light your rocket. Go for it. Anything is possible if you are willing to pay that price, do whatever it takes, endure whatever comes at you, accept that failure is your greatest teacher.Don’t curse darkness, light a candle of hope. Eventually once you do get there, and you will, if and only if you never, ever and we mean ever give up, you’ll have to ask yourself, “Where do I want to go next?” Be kind to others, especially the strange ones. A blink of an eye ago, our friends thought it was absolutely impossible for us to do this and some friends of ours, simply ended our friendships because we decided to pursue this. Well, here we are. We did it. The true and dear friends are those brothers in creative arms who steadfastly believe in you, when others don’t, won’t ever change and those people are truly priceless and absolutely vital for success, because in those bleak moments where success or failure can be swayed either way by even a single sentence, its those dear friends, which nudge you back and remind you of who and what you are, and thereby, enabling the manifestation of your dream.

We hope you enjoyed reading this update as to why its taken so long to do this. We haven’t rested in years. We have driven as hard as humanly possible and then some. Now that we are here, the website will continue to be updated with more and more coins, more services we can offer and above all, be genuine and authentic with lifes journey’s and the success and failures which are part of any dream. Stay tuned, stay inspired. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but the super heavy lifting has been completed. Never give up on your dream and if you ever need motivation, just look to this Black Beaver….

Beaverworks Mint

November 2024