Historical Commerce Collection - The Agriculture Trade, a 2008 silver proof 20 dollar coin from Canada.

 

This 2008 silver proof $20 coin celebrates the attachment of Canadians to the land and the horse's relationship to our agricultural heritage.

When the first immigrants began arriving in North America four hundred years ago, they faced the challenge of adapting European farming methods to this new and unknown land. As settlements spread from east to west, the changing climate and geography produced markedly different agricultural practices across the continent. Still, regardless of crop or locale, every farm had the same basic need - power. Horses emerged as a critical source and the services required to breed, equip and maintain them often became an essential part of the first communities that dotted the landscape. Horses remained a key necessity well into the 1920s. Without them, farms would be incapable of producing the volume needed to generate income. In just a few generations, the first seeds sown by the pioneers had yielded of one of Canada's defining industries.

This coin's reverse features the same elegant design as its gold sibling: Ontario artist John Mardon's depiction of an early Canadian farmer plowing a field with the help of two majestic draft horses.