This unique $25 fine silver football-shaped coin is curved (convex) to resemble an inflated football.  While a football can soar through the air in a perfect spiral, its motion is completely unpredictable should it hit the ground; just one of many aspects that have made this strategic running-kicking-tossing-catching-tackling game one of the most popular sports in North America.  Royal Canadian Mint engravers meticulously crafted a football that comes alive in this coin’s unique shape and convex reverse. Mintage is limited to just 8,500 coins.  HST/GST exempt.

While there are minor differences in the specifications for the footballs used by the various football leagues in North America, this design showcases all the standardized features of a modern Canadian football: the leather panels, “night stripes,” and laces that were once part of the manufacturing process but are now used to maximize grip. 

Theories abound how the football got its distinctive shape, but one thing’s for sure, it’s not the result of deliberate design, it just evolved that way. One theory suggests the first footballs some 170 years ago simply took on the shape of the pig’s bladder from which they were made. Even when the switch was made to cowhide and rubber, early footballs were difficult to inflate and were consistently lopsided. This warped shape proved to be a lot easier to carry and throw, and when players began using the forward pass in the early 1900’s, the football was deliberately designed into the elongated shape we see today.