This 99.99% pure silver masterpiece is the first issue in the Historical Commerce collection of fine silver coins. It features a typical farming scene from the 1920s - a farmer plowing his field with a two-horse team. This stunning coin is a fitting tribute to a cornerstone industry that shaped communities across North America.

Sowing the seeds of trade
For as long as humans have walked the earth, they have drawn their sustenance from the land. Early hunters and gatherers made the first crude attempts to raise crops. As agriculture developed, the need for reliable food sources continued to lure people to new lands.

When the first immigrants began arriving in North America four hundred years ago, they faced the challenge of adapting European farming methods to this new and unknown land. As settlements spread from east to west, the changing climate and geography produced markedly different agricultural practices across the continent. Still, regardless of crop or locale, every farm had the same basic need - power.

Horses emerged as a critical source and the services required to breed, equip and maintain them often became an essential part of the first communities that dotted the landscape. Horses remained a key necessity well into the 1920s. Without them, farms would be incapable of producing the volume needed to generate income. In just a few generations, the first seeds sown by the pioneers had yielded of one of Canada's defining industries.