5 Dollars - Elizabeth II Ice Fishing Mother with Baby

The Royal Canadian Mint's niobium-in-silver bimetallic series, launched in 2003 with a holographic aurora design, built a decade-long collector following around the niobium core's capacity to be anodized into vivid colors unavailable through conventional minting. The specific blue-grey tone achieved in this 2013 issue results from a controlled oxidation process applied to the niobium after striking — the color is not paint or enamel but a product of light interference across a precisely grown oxide layer.