25 Dollars - Elizabeth II Orca

Part of the RCM's ongoing hologram series, this issue uses a light-diffracting surface treatment applied directly to the field — a technique the mint refined through the early 2000s and which required retooling standard coining presses to control striking pressure precisely enough to preserve the foil layer. The orca subject tied to Canadian Pacific coastal identity, but the real story here is technical: achieving a .9999 fine silver surface stable enough to hold holographic registration without ghosting or delamination took the RCM several production cycles to master across the series.