Canada Gives Alice Munro Coolest Tribute Ever

So, this wasn't in the plans, but... I think I'm heading north, because Canadians are about to get the coolest commemorative coinage ever. At a ceremony in Victoria, British Columbia on Monday, the Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a new limited-edition $5 coin that be issued in honor of writer Alice Munro. Munro, the 82-year-old Canada native, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013, and the coin celebrates the achievement.

“We were all so proud and pleased when [Munro] won the Nobel Prize and having her have this coin unveiled today is another beautiful acknowledgement of what she means to Canadian literature,” Mary Osborne, executive director of the writer’s trust, said in a television interview.

The shiny silver coin, designed by Canadian artist Laurie McGraw, is quite a beauty, too. It depicts a woman holding an open book, penning a passage from Munro’s book of stories The View from Caste Rock. The passage, which is inscribed in French on the opposite page, was selected by Munro herself and reads as follows:

And in one of these houses — I can't remember whose — a magic doorstop, a big mother-of-pearl seashell that I recognized as a messenger from near and far, because I could hold it to my ear — when nobody was there to stop me — and discover the tremendous pounding of my own blood, and of the sea.

Not many living authors get their own commemorative currency, so bravo, Ms. Munro. The mint will issue only 7,500 copies, priced at approximately $63. That may be $58 markup, but fans of her revolutionary story telling will find it a worthy investment.

Image: J. Munro via Nobelprize.org