Obverse. Photo © NumisCorner.com
  • 1 Dollar 1976, KM# 106, Canada, Elizabeth II, 100th Anniversary of the Ottawa Library of Parliament
  • 1 Dollar 1976, KM# 106, Canada, Elizabeth II, 100th Anniversary of the Ottawa Library of Parliament
Description

The Library of Parliament is the main information repository and research resource for the Parliament of Canada. The main branch of the library sits at the rear of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, and is the last untouched part of that larger building's original incarnation after it burned down in 1916. Though construction of the present library began in 1859 and the collection arrived in Ottawa in 1866, work was halted in 1861 and was not completed until 1876, when the 47,000 volumes—including several donated by Queen Victoria—were installed. The building today serves as a Canadian icon, and appears on the obverse of the Canadian ten-dollar bill.

Obverse

Second crowned portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II facing right, wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara.

The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara was a wedding present in 1947 from her grandmother, Queen Mary, who received it as a gift from the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland in 1893 on the occasion of her marriage to the Duke of York, later George V. Made by E. Wolfe & Co., it was purchased from Garrard & Co. by a committee organised by Lady Eve Greville. In 1914, Mary adapted the tiara to take 13 diamonds in place of the large oriental pearls surmounting the tiara. At first, Elizabeth wore the tiara without its base and pearls but the base was reattached in 1969. The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara is one of Elizabeth's most recognisable pieces of jewellery due to its widespread use on British banknotes and coinage.

ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA means Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen.

Engraver: Arnold Machin

ELIZABETH II D·G·REGINA

Reverse

Depicts the Library of Parliament building, the country name and the facial value above, the dates below.

Designed by Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones, and inspired by the British Museum Reading Room, the building is formed as a chapter house, separated from the main body of the Centre Block by a corridor; this arrangement, as well as many other details of the design, was reached with the input of the then parliamentary librarian, Alpheus Todd. The walls, supported by a ring of 16 flying buttresses, are load bearing, double-wythe masonry, consisting of a hydraulic lime rubble fill core between an interior layer of dressed stone and rustic Nepean sandstone on the exterior. Around the windows and along other edges is dressed stone trim, along with a multitude of stone carvings, including floral patterns and friezes, keeping with the Victorian High Gothic style of the rest of the parliamentary complex. The roof, set in three tiers topped by a cupola, used to be a timber frame structure covered with slate tiles, but has been rebuilt with steel framing and deck covered with copper. The initial overall combination of colours—grey Gloucester limestone and grey Nepean, red Potsdam and buff Ohio sandstones, as well as purple and green slate banding—conformed to the picturesque style known as structural polychromy.

Engravers: Patrick Brindley (B), Walter Ott (WO)

CANADA DOLLAR
B WO
1876-1976

Edge

1 Dollar

2nd portrait

100th Anniversary of the Ottawa Library of Parliament

KM# 106
Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Non-circulating)
Material Silver
Fineness 0.500
Weight 23.3276 g
Diameter 36.06 mm
Thickness 2.84 mm
Shape round
Alignment Medal
Mint
Royal Canadian Mint (RCM)

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