Between-the-wars: 1939 and good-bye from Bluenose

[villa66]

Reading about the Rex, and about luxury liners in general, has really entertained me. The connections keep coming, and of course I haven’t even scratched the surface. But it’s time to move on, so just a few more vignettes, then I’ll leave it alone.

First of three is Empress of Britain, built by the British and new in service in 1931, 758 feet long and rated at 24 knots.

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Between-the-wars; late Spring, 1939. British King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Canada and made a side-trip to the United States—first ever for a reigning British monarch. Canadian schoolchildren were each given a bronze medal marking the Royal Visit. The medals had two distinctly different obverses, with the example below being the “local” (Thomas Shingles) version, on which the portraits touch the rim. (On the Percy Metcalfe version there is a space between rim and portrait.)

[villa66]

The Royal Visit medals were terrific geography lessons—wonderfully detailed—and of course in 1939 when they were new and shiny they were very like the festivities that attended those happy weeks of cross-country ritual and celebration.

But it took no special talent to discern the hard-hearted reason that underlay the Royal visit to Canada, or the side-trip to America. Europe was going to war, and the British Empire was preparing itself.

Which lent some unwelcome irony to the 1939 dollar struck to celebrate the Royal Visit, because Canada’s Parliament building with its new central tower—the “Peace Tower”--dominated its reverse....

[villa66]

There is another coin with a connection to the Royal Visit, and to maybe its saddest moment…its end. Bluenose—Canadian icon and then-new resident of its 10-cent piece—was among the ships gathered in Halifax Harbor that late afternoon of 15 June 1939 when the British King and Queen departed on the liner Empress of Britain.

What a moment good-bye must have been from the deck of Bluenose, standing at her rails, with maybe a glimmer of awareness of the disaster brewing in Europe, watching Empress of Britain slowly leave the harbor and make for open water, homeward.

There would be that last peacetime summer of 1939, of course, but September would come. Empress of Britain would be torpedoed and sunk the following autumn.

Bluenose would survive the war, but not by much—and with little of her former dignity. Here she is in her heyday, between-the-wars.

v.

[Mynter]

That was really fun to read. A George VI- Blue Nose - dime was the first coin I purchased from a dealer. I was aged 12 then and collected on an allowence- based budget.

[villa66]

An appealing image—a young collector making his or her first purchase from a dealer—and an experience instantly relatable for almost all of us here.

I have to ask, and please pardon me if this is too intrusive, but do you still own the coin? And can you perhaps say anything about the calculus involved? That is, why was that the coin you picked?

v.

[Mynter]

An appealing image—a young collector making his or her first purchase from a dealer—and an experience instantly relatable for almost all of us here.

I have to ask, and please pardon me if this is too intrusive, but do you still own the coin? And can you perhaps say anything about the calculus involved? That is, why was that the coin you picked?

v.

Unfortunatly almost all of my first coins are gone, so I can not display my very first commercial numismatist transaction. But I remember it clearly. Looking at the display in the shop- window for several days, befor finally entering and closing the deal. I picked the Blue Nose- dime because I as a boy was fanatic about sailing- ships, Lord Nelson, The Bounty, you name it. Perhaps my affection for a canadian tv- show, called " Beachcombers " may have played a roll aswell. The show was broadcasted on german tv under the name of " Strandpiraten " and I loved it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENMOwXwRTZU
Then , of course a Blue Nose- dime in vf- xf was affordable ( 2 or 3 DM on an monthly allowence of 10 DM ).

Well, well, even if my canadian dime has gone, I have not disposed of all of my childood- relics. I still have the notgeld- coins I got from my grandmother. There my affection for coin- collecting started. And I likewise still keep this french 2 franc. In grade 1 or 2 I tried to pay with it for the school- milk .To me it looked like a german 2- mark and I still recall how I was wondering how two ( almoust ) equally looking coins would not possess an equal buying- power. Of course, I did ot use the term " buying- power " then, but the franc/mark- puzzle contributed to my interest for coins and numismatist questions in general.

[villa66]

Thanks! Nice story--made me smile. And your time spent looking in the shop windows...perfect. (I'll check out the Canadian TV program--I've never heard of it.)

Have to say I had a sailing ship affliction myself as a boy, so I guess this detour into luxury liners is just a return to old habits. And I too had an early franc-problem, but more on that another time, maybe.

Thanks again for letting me know about your Canadian dime. And maybe one note more. Canadian dimes were in occasional circulation in southwest Missouri when we would visit our grandparents in the mid-60s. You know how silver looks after it's been circulating a few years--in my mind's eye I can still see the "weather-beaten" look of the old schooner on those coins.

Those little moments are a half-century old now, but it's amazing how fresh they still seem. Fun to know others are subject to the same species of thing.

v.