Naughty or nice, celebrate the Holidays with this value-priced, 7-coin mint set, with a color Santa Claus quarter unique to this set!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or all of the above, this is the perfect holiday gift! To celebrate the season the Royal Canadian Mint has once again designed a beautiful mint set with a special colorized quarter unavailable anywhere else! This set makes a great present for kids or adults, and includes room inside for your personalized dedication, so it can also be given as the most elaborate holiday card your recipient has ever seen! All coins are dated 2009 and will evoke fond memories for years to come.

This year's special edition holiday quarter features a colorful design of a very jolly Old Saint Nick beneath a shower of snowflake-like maple leaves, all executed in red, green and white!

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The Holiday Mint Set
In addition to the colored quarter with jolly old St. Nick, this holiday gift set includes all of the other circulation coins of Canada, each of which features a design emblematic of Canada, including:
    One Cent Maple Leaf Penny
    Five Cent Beaver Nickel
    Ten Cent Bluenose Schooner Dime
    Fifty Cent Coat of Arms Half Dollar
    One Dollar Common Loon Loonie
    Two Dollar Bi-Metallic Polar Bear Toonie
Each coin has a proof-like finish and is specially-struck and hand-picked for these high-quality sets.

This is the sixth annual release of the special Holiday Gift Set. Please see the article near the end of this presentation for a short history of Santa Claus.

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Technology Note
The Royal Canadian Mint leads the world with its proprietary colorization technology, in which the color is actually sealed on the coin. The intricate detail, smooth gradients, and extreme precision of the technology create a stunning, full-color image on each coin.

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Special Santa Claus Colorized Quarter
The obverse pictures a friendly, merry rendition of Santa Claus in full color, a twinkle in his eyes as he revels in the maple-leaf-like snowflakes showering down on him. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England, in profile facing right, appears on the reverse. This portrait, the fourth effigy of the queen to appear on Canadian Coinage, was executed by the artist Susanna Blunt. The legend ELIZABETH II D. G. REGINA ("Elizabeth II, Queen by the Grace of God") also appears.

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Packaging
This attractive set is packaged in a full-color, bilingual blister pack. The large folder opens to show off both sides of the coins and features holiday imagery. A space is provided for a personal dedication.

Set Specifications

Santa Claus or Father Christmas
There are many myths and legends surrounding Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas in the UK or Europe, also as Kris Kringle or even Papa Noel in Latin America. His legendary residence is at the North Pole, where he abides happily with his wife, Mrs. Claus (first name unknown) and many small elves or gnomes who are working hard all year round to create toys for all the children of the world.

Mr. Claus has the job of overseeing toy production and of course keeping the list of children and their behavior, for use on Christmas Eve in delivering appropriate gifts. He does this all in one night with the assistance of his flying reindeer and his magical sleigh. (And one very large sack to hold all the goodies!)

While his age is not known exactly, traditional representations of the bearded man in his red and white suit date back as early as the late 1800's, making him quite old indeed. In some cultures there has been opposition to Santa Claus as he has sometimes pushed aside more traditional local symbols of Christmas such as "Sinterklaas" in the Netherlands, the Yule Goat in Sweden, and "Toftirus" in Norway, although it is rumored that Jolly old St. Nick does enjoy a tankard of Norwegian Yule Ale now and then.

Santa's actual place of residence is a well-kept secret, in that the "North Pole" is somewhat indistinct, and that no less than three Scandinavian countries claim to have Santa as a resident within their borders. This likely is a security issue for Santa, who must want to protect his massive production facilities and accumulations of toys and electronics.

As Christmas approaches, millions of children get ready to put out cookies and milk by the chimney, as they wait for Santa to arrive during their sleep.