Spring, summer, fall or winter — Canada’s beloved sugar maple is naturally stunning in every season.Shaped like the traditional symbol for re-birth and renewal, this irregular-shaped coin celebrates atimeless cycle that begins anew each spring across the Canadian landscape, where life moves to thenatural rhythm of the four seasons.DESIGNLike a “year in the life” snapshot of a Canadian icon, the reverse image by Margaret Best traces the sugarmaple tree and its leaf’s progression through the seasons. A finely engraved maple tree and its mirrorimage are each divided in half to create quadrants representing spring, summer, fall and winter, helpedby artistic touches that stand in for Mother Nature’s ever-changing colour palette.The coloured upper left quadrant steps into a spring landscape, where the maple’s branches are coveredin the reddish-brown buds featured in the enlarged view near the centre. The engraved upper rightquadrant leaps ahead to a mid-summer day, where selective gold plating mimics the effect of sunlighton the maple’s broad summer foliage. In the coloured lower right quadrant, the fall scene is a tapestry ofbrilliant red, yellow and orange hues that famously give Canada its fall colours, while the leaf’s curlededges allude to the seasonal shedding of leaves in preparation for winter. In the engraved lower leftquadrant, the maple’s frosted silhouette embodies the resilient spirit of Canadians who embrace ournorthern climate, even in the face of winter’s fury, while the withered leaf is highlighted with selectivegold plating for an elegant contrast. Coupled with the coin’s egg shape, which traditionally symbolizesrenewal, the addition of a pair of maple keys is significant: the winged seeds represent the future of themaple and hint at the timelessness of this continuous seasonal cycle. The obverse features the effigy ofHer Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.