Sable Island horses featured on new silver coin from Royal Canadian Mint

Sable Island horses are pictured along with a new coin from the Royal Canadian Mint. (Courtesy of the Government of Canada)

The Royal Canadian Mint has released a one-ounce silver coin featuring Nova Scotia’s Sable Island horses.

The coin comes as Canada marks 65 years of protected status for the horses.

There are 7,000 coins, which feature a galloping stallion on the windswept island, available to collectors for $229.95. They have a face value of $20.

The engraving is based on a picture taken by equine photographer Sandy Sharkey in 2014.

“It is a great honour to have my image ‘The Stallion and the Sea’ adorn an official coin released by the Royal Canadian Mint,” she says in a statement.

“Adored around the world, the wild horses are a source of pride for all Canadians, symbolizing the free spirit that exists in all of us.”

The horses have roamed freely on the remote sandbar for nearly 300 years, believed to be descendants of animals brought to the island in the 1700s.

The Government of Canada says there are roughly 420 wild horses on the island today.

Discussions emerged in the 1960s to potentially remove them, citing concerns about possible malnutrition, inbreeding, and harsh conditions.

The public pushed back, with Canadians writing letters to elected officials to leave the horses free.

Then-prime minister John Diefenbaker called the outcry, “an example of the processes of good citizenship.”

“These particular animals have a long genealogy. They have been with us over a period of several hundred years, and I was naturally very much touched by some of the requests that were made,” Diefenbaker said during a House of Commons debate on June 2, 1960.

“I had the matter looked into, and I think it may be said with certainty that these animals and their posterity will continue to live on this island.”

Formal protections were put in place in 1961, ensuring the horses’ permanent place on the island.

In 2013, Sable Island became a National Park Preserve, bringing the island and its wildlife under the protection and responsibility of Parks Canada.

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