Item: i109095

Authentic Coin of:

Canada – 125th Anniversary of the Canadian Confederation
British Columbia
1992 Proof Silver 25 Cents 23.8mm (5.83 grams)  0.925 Silver (0.1734 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 232a | Engraver: Dora de Pédery-Hunt, Carla Herrera Egan
ELIZABETH II CANADA D·G·REGINA 1867-1992, Elizabeth II facing right.
BRITISH COLUMBIA • COLOMBIE-BRITANNIQUE C H E 25 CENTS, A design representing the province of British Columbia — orcas surfacing.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

British Columbia (BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 5.1 million as of 2021, it is Canada’s third-most populous province. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for Queen Victoria, who reigned over the British Empire at the time of Confederation. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, and the second-largest in the Pacific Northwest. In October 2013, Greater Vancouver had an estimated population of approximately 2.5 million. Since 2017, the province has been governed by the New Democratic Party, led by John Horgan, first with a minority government elected in 2017 and subsequently with a majority government elected in 2020.

The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, which gave rise to the City of Victoria, at first the capital of the separate Colony of Vancouver Island. The Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) was subsequently founded on the mainland by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Moody was chief commissioner of Lands and Works for the Colony and the first lieutenant governor of British Columbia: he was hand-picked by the Colonial Office in London to transform British Columbia into the British Empire’s “bulwark in the farthest west”, and “to found a second England on the shores of the Pacific”. Moody selected the site for and founded the original capital of British Columbia, New Westminster, and also established the Cariboo Road and Stanley Park, and also designed the first version of the coat of arms of British Columbia. Port Moody is named after him.

In 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colony’s capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the sixth province of Canada. Its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu (“Splendour without Diminishment”). British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were established in what is now British Columbia by 1871.

First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties, and the question of aboriginal title, long ignored, has become a frequently debated legal and political question as a result of recent court actions. Notably, the Tsilhqot’in Nation has established aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the 2014 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Tsilhqot’in Nation v British Columbia.

British Columbia’s economy is primarily based on forestry, mining, cinematography and tourism. British Columbia also benefits from high property values and being a centre for maritime trade. Although less than 5 percent of its territory is arable land, a lot of agriculture is done in the Fraser Valley and Okanagan thanks to the warmer climate. It is the fourth-largest province or territory by GDP.

Canada is a country, consisting of ten provinces and three territories, in the northern part of the continent of North America. It extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres (3.85 million square miles) in total, making it the world’s second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area. Canada’s common border with the United States forms the world’s longest land border. Canada is sparsely populated overall, the majority of its land territory being dominated by forest and tundra as well as the mountain range of the Rocky Mountains; about four-fifths of the population live near to the southern border. The majority of Canada has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer.

The land now called Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonies were established on the region’s Atlantic coast. As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and lost North American territories until left, in the late 18th century, with what mostly comprises Canada today. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1, 1867, three colonies joined to form the autonomous federal Dominion of Canada. This began an accretion of provinces and territories to the new self-governing Dominion. In 1931, Britain granted Canada near total independence with the Statute of Westminster 1931 and full sovereignty was attained when the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.

Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II being the current head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level. It is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries, with a population of approximately 35 million as of 2015. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada’s long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture.

Canada is a developed country and one of the wealthiest in the world, with the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally, and the eighth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, and education. Canada is a Commonwealth Realm member of the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie, and part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G8, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.