Bluenose

The Canadian dime has to be one of the most beautifully designed pieces of money in the world. It seems such a thorough balance of aesthetics; the coin itself is so graceful, almost weightless, and then on the back is a tiny, perfect engraving of a schooner under sail, fairly flying.

Supposedly Emmanuel Hahn, who designed the picture on the back of the dime, based his depiction on three separate vessels. However, people tended to refer to the schooner as the Bluenose, after the Lunenburg, Nova Scotia vessel that had, by the time of the dime's first minting in 1937, won numerous titles in the International Fishermen's Race.

The Nova Scotia government has a good deal of material on the Bluenose on their website here, which is very interesting reading and includes a few 1920's pictures from the Fishermen's Race.